The Legend of Crystal 3: The Darkest Hour
by TLOSpyrogirl
Summary: They say the darkest hour is just before the dawn, but is that true anymore? With Spyro, Crystal, and Cynder's disappearance, the Dark Master no longer has anybody in his way. He now rules all. When the gang returns after three years of dormancy, they're thrust into a new world, a new adventure. An adventure that could cost them everything...
1. The Beginning

**A/N:**

**How exhilarating! You know who Volteer reminds me of? Bart, from Viva Pinata. And Bentley from YotD. XD I don't own Spyro. Just Crystal, unfortunately. And if you don't like the story I'll make you fight a gremlin! YAY!**

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_Dedicated to River_

_Thank you for your support, your help, and your friendship thus far_

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_Even in the darkest of times, there is always hope. But sometimes fear clouds our vision. Sometimes our strength gives out. And yet sometimes when all seems lost... a light shines through the darkness. And we are reminded that even the smallest amount of courage... can turn the tides of war!_

"Break it."

A group of grublins stood around the crystal that glowed with an orange light. Inside the crystal were three dragons and a dragonfly. Two of the dragons were above the other entities, wings spread wide. The dragonfly and the other dragon were near us, and seemed to be frightened or shocked. All of their eyes were closed.

Even the grublins could feel the strange magic that emanated from the crystal. One of the grublins brought his crudely-made club down with a smash.

The crystal began to glow and crack up the middle. Voices that were trapped within the interior flowed forth, echoing in the chamber the crystal was in.

"_Spyro! Crystal! Stop!"_

"_I... I can't..."_

"_Get close to me... now!"_

The crystal shattered with a bright flash. The grublins shielded their eyes from the onslaught of light and crystal shards.

~~...~~

I felt my head being raised by a coarse hand. Its claws dug into me as it held my limp body up. I felt something cold coil around my neck and then fade away. My head was dropped back onto the ground, which dissipated what little consciousness I had.

"Spyro. Spyro, open your eyes! Get up!" I heard the whisper, but I at first didn't recognize the voice behind it.

"Crystal, wake up!" The whisper was closer now.

Despite my body objecting quite profusely, I managed to raise my head. "You sound different," I murmured.

It was Cynder who had woken me up. There was something strange about her. She looked different, sounded different... it was odd.

Around us were the glowing remnants of an orange crystal. I shook my head and blinked several times. It was beginning to come back to me. I could hear Spyro, Cynder, and Sparx's voices in my head, but the visions were blurry.

"Cynder... what happened? Where are we?" Spyro asked.

I turned to look at him and nearly jumped when I saw him. Spyro looked years older, and when I thought about it, he even sounded a bit older as well. I blinked and cocked my head. That's when I realized his voice was echoing, and the only light came from these chunks of crystal. Of course; it was just a trick of the light, and the echoing made them sound different.

"I don't know. It's all a blur," Cynder said to Spyro.

"Spyro?" I coughed from the dust and pulled myself up into a sitting position.

"Yeah. Me, too." Spyro said. He turned to me. "Hey, Crystal. Are you alright?"

I nodded and wavered slightly. "Yeah. I'm just a little drowsy."

"My head's pounding," Spyro complained.

"Shh! Wait! That's not your head... I hear it too..." Cynder said, her voice nearly a whisper.

I blinked and tried to focus on the sound. My head didn't even hurt and I could feel the pounding as well. It was like drums, and I could hear chanting mixed in with is it.

"What is that?" Spyro asked. "Sparx! Is that you?"

I gasped slightly, realizing Sparx was gone. I looked around frantically, but I couldn't spot him.

Fires began to light in small crescent-pots hanging off the ceiling, illuminating the room. The pots were strung from the ceiling with rope, and held from the rope at the sides of the pot with chains.

The fire revealed that we were on a stone island in the middle of a room. The platform was hexagonal. There were more hexagon markings on it, growing inward and getting smaller and smaller, until it reached the middle where the design of a sun was. A large chunk of the platform was broken off, and a small pathway led out, but the door at the end of it was shut and I couldn't see any means of opening it.

The rest of the room was merely a pit, with lava far below it. There were strange carvings on the walls, but they were unlike those found at the Temple. As more lights lit up, they revealed balconies near the ceiling, with strange, indescribable creatures on it. Some were grey, some were green. A few had wings, and their faces were distorted. They reminded me of the small insects in the swamp. The creatures looked like they were cheering.

"For once, I wish it was," Cynder said after a long pause. "What are they doing?"

"Let's not stick around to find out. Come on!" Spyro said.

"I'm with Spyro on this one. This place is creepy," I said, looking around warily.

Cynder began to walk forward quickly. "Ugh. What is your problem?" she demanded.

I looked up and gave Cynder a questioning look, then widened my eyes. "Uh, Cynder..." I said.

There was a collar around her neck. It was a silvery green, like a fish's belly, and there was crackling, green electricity coming out of it, towards me and Spyro. I looked down and realized I had on one of the collars as well! But I hadn't a moment ago... how in the world...?

"Oh, this can't be good," Cynder and Spyro said together.

An orc ran through the door and yelled out. He looked as if he was made out of vines twisted together, and was wearing orange armor. His tail was scorpion-like and he held a mace, also made of gnarled wood.

I looked away for a moment as some of the creatures popped out of the ground. Now that they were closer, I could see them more clearly. They were made out of dirt and vines, their backs coated in grass. Their glowing red eyes stuck out of their head in semblance of a praying mantis. Their weapons, ranges from swords to cleavers to axes, were made out of splintery wood, the tips sharp stone.

In the middle of room was a strange crystal. As I rushed forward to attack these... things... my collar crackled and dragged me back, allowing the creature to get an attack in.

Spyro used fire to kill one, while Cynder backed up and charged forward, knocking into one and sending it skidding and flying off the edge.

"AAAH! GET THIS THING OFF ME!" I screamed, running around in circles. One of the tree-things had jumped on my head. It was in the process of hitting me with the axe, but luckily it was the blunt side! I tried to slip the collar on me so I could run forward, but nothing worked. Finally, I ran to the opposite side of the chain and was forced to an abrupt stop. The creature went flying.

"Oww," I complained.

"Knock it off, Crystal, this is serious," Spyro said.

"Thanks for the sympathy."

"You'll be fine."

I gawked at Spyro. "He hit me repeatedly with an axe!"

Spyro sighed and shook his head.

"Don't you," I made a loud, drawn-out sigh, "me!"

Wisely deciding to ignore me, Spyro turned away and continued to fight.

The bridge that led out of the room suddenly broke as a rock from the ceiling smashed into it. Luckily, that cut off the stream of these odd creatures.

One strange thing I noticed about them was that when they died, they didn't leave behind a body. They disappeared into a black puff of smoke. It was easy to see that whatever these things were, they certainly weren't natural. But if they weren't natural, what were they?

I knocked one into the air, grabbed it, and slammed it back onto the ground. I coughed in the smoke that appeared and steadied myself as the ground shook. Just then, a pillar that held up the room came down, luckily not hitting us.

It was deathly silent after that. I walked forward slowly... something was very wrong here.

Just then, a giant hand came from the pit and slammed down, just narrowly missing me as I jumped back. A great lava monster rose out of the abyss below and roared. The monster was made out of molten rock, somehow attached to and held together by lava. He wasn't just big, he was _massive, _and he looked angry. And hungry.

"We have to break this thing. It's holding us down!" Cynder said, motioning towards the crystal that held us in place.

We ran over to it and began to hit the crystal, until with a blast, it broke. But the collars hadn't gone away!

"Why are the collars still here?" I asked, noticing the green crackle pulsating between the three of us.

"I don't know!" Spyro said.

A moment later, the lava-monster's giant hand slammed down onto me.


	2. The Truth

"Let me go!" In retrospect, that was a pretty stupid thing to say. The hand had landed around me, thankfully, but now I was trapped inside it and the lava in its hand was beginning to scorch me.

I knew Spyro and Cynder were attacking this _thing, _but it still wouldn't let go. Spyro growled, backed up, and rammed into the hand as hard as he could. The Golem roared and raised his hand.

I clambered to my feet and ran back over to Spyro and Cynder. Luckily, I was unhurt, as there was a depression in the floor so I couldn't get completely squished, although the lava-monster had slammed my head onto the floor which left me a little disoriented.

Spyro was going to say something, but was interrupted by the other hand being slammed down onto the platform. I growled. There wasn't time for this!

I attacked the hand, hitting it with all my might and main. Spyro and Cynder soon joined in, despite the fact that I had practically dragged them over there. The lava-monster roared and pulled his hand back again.

"This chain is slowing us down," Spyro said. "We can't fight it! We'll have to move in unison. Follow my lead."

"Why should _you _lead?" Cynder protested.

"Uh-oh... take cover!"

The lava-monster tried to hit us again, emitting a furious hiss. Luckily, Spyro, Cynder, and I managed to get into the air before it could do any damage. I had the feeling that if I got hit again, I wouldn't be as lucky as I had been.

"Okay... good idea. You lead..." Cynder said.

Unfortunately, Spyro's plan was hard to follow. It was hard for us to match each other's movements. Although staying within range of each other was easy enough, I still couldn't help but try to fly away every once in a while, forgetting about the chain.

The lava-monster swiped at us, but it missed. We landed on the platform again. I turned, just in time to see the monster's eye explode in a flash of purple. It roared and slammed at the wall. I looked at where it had hit, but I only saw a blur dodge the attack. Then, the monster finally fell back into the pit where he came from. I breathed a sigh of relief.

Cynder, who had somehow fallen, stood up. I walked forward, confused, but suddenly a very familiar yellow light lit up my vision.

"Hey! Spyro, man! Crystal, you're alive!" Sparx exclaimed, flying around us.

"Sparx! It's good to see you, too!" Spyro said, smiling.

"I've never been more happy to see you than I am now!" I said with a laugh.

"You okay?" Spyro asked.

"Hey, you know. A little stiff, voice keeps changing, but I'm good!" Sparx replied. I grinned and chuckled.

"Hey, this reunion is really touching and everything," Cynder said, "but should we be going? Unless you want to wait for that thing to climb back up. I'd... hate to think what it might do to Sparx."

Sparx narrowed his eyes and glared at Cynder.

Well, at least that amusing rivalry those two had wouldn't be going away. The one thing that hadn't changed...

"Who is he?" Spyro asked, looking up at a cheetah who was standing on one of the balconies.

"I dunno. All he said was, 'Shh, you're making too much noise.'" Sparx said, doing a deep-throated imitation.

Cynder chuckled. "I like him already."

"Me too," I said. Sparx glared at both of us.

Our little party took to the air and flew up to meet the cheetah who had very well saved our lives. It was a cheetah, who was almost a honey color with white accents and black spots. He was clad in red, and was holding a steady wooden bow. A quiver was strapped to his back. He had little red protective bands on his wrists and hind legs. His eyes were blue-green. He also had a certain demeanor about him which couldn't really be described in words—minus the word 'calm'.

"Spyro, Crystal, Cynder, how do you feel?" the cheetah asked. He crouched down to eye-level. "Anything broken?"

"Shaken a little, but not too badly. Thanks to you," Spyro replied.

The cheetah sighed and stood up. "I am relieved. I feared I might be too late. My name is Hunter."

With that, a flood of memories came rushing back at me and hit me like a wave.

"_I can't feel a thing..."_

"_What are you waiting for, dragon? Finish me!"_

"_Spyro! Crystal! Stop!"_

_"I... I can't..."_

_"I was going to kill you and Sparx if you hadn't stopped me, Cynder."_

"_Uh-oh! That's our only way out!"_

_"Get up, Spyro! We're not leaving without you or Crystal!"_

_"Oh, no... we're trapped!"_

"_Get close to me... now!"_

It was all I could do to keep from gasping. I remembered everything now... but if Spyro and I had made the crystal in the collapsing Well of Souls... where were we?

"Hunter... you've been tracking me," Spyro said, showing no such surprise. Hunter turned and walked through a doorway. We followed him.

"For far too long, friend." Hunter stopped and turned. "When you didn't return to the Temple, the elder dragon, Ignitus, sent me to find you." He paused. "That was nearly three years ago."

"What? Three years? ! But that's impossible!" Spyro exclaimed.

"No way! I'm not old enough to be this old!" I protested, not caring that that sentence made no sense whatsoever.

Cynder remained silent, but I'm sure she was just as shocked as we were.

"Yes... I'm sure this news comes as quite as shock. Forgive me for the brevity of my explanation, but this is not the place to account for missing time," Hunter said.

Spyro and I exchanged glances. We were twelve? Impossible... there was no way we could have been in there so long and survived. But Hunter didn't seem to be like the type to lie to us about something this important. So it was true...

My thoughts turned to Mom and Dad. They must have worried themselves sick over us! I doubted they thought we were even alive.

And the Guardians... for three years, believing that we were dead. And Ignitus... It was him who I had failed the most.

My steps weighted by these heavy thoughts, I followed Hunter as he led us along.


	3. Hologram

**A/N**

**Why the did last chapter look funny? *Older TLOSpyrogirl appears* You know what that was? That was me realizing that my paragraphing was all wrong. *shakes head* Anyway, I don't own Spyro, just Crystal. If you don't like the story then don't read it.**

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Hunter looked up abruptly as debris fell from the ceiling and blocked off the door. "We are not safe here... follow me."

Spyro and Cynder exchanged glances. I walked forward and stopped to absorb a red Spirit Gem. Spyro and Cynder finished off the gem and headed through the doorway Hunter had walked through.

"It's getting closer..." Hunter, who was waiting for us, said.

The room we were in had a great chasm in the middle of it, the remnants of a stone bridge, most of its parts fallen into the chasm, the only thing left. On the other side of the chasm was a doorway, and I assumed that was our destination.

"Why does this look familiar?" I whispered to Spyro. "You don't think this is the..." I trailed off.

Hunter crossed the bridge, jumping over the stranded parts. The supporting pillar on one piece of the bridge broke and rumbled down into the pit, but Hunter easily cleared the jump off it and onto the next piece of bridge. When he reached the other side, he turned around and waited for us to follow.

Sparx laughed nervously. "Uh... you go first, Cynder. It's safer. For me. Safer for me, I me—"

"Quiet! You'll give us away," Cynder whispered.

I cautiously stepped onto the first piece of the bridge. "Uh..." I said, wobbling. "Spyro. I'm not comfortable with this."

"Just stay calm," Spyro replied.

I hesitantly took to the air and glided over to the next chunk of stone. I would have merely flown, but I didn't have enough strength to expend on flying at the moment. Once more we glided over to the next bridge piece, but that's when we heard a rumbling growl coming from below us.

"Go faster!" I hissed, quickly flying over the large gap where the part of the bridge Hunter had landed on and broken was.

As Spyro, Cynder, and I swooped down and landed on the final bridge chunk, there was another growl. Hunter jumped back, just a split second before a giant hand slammed into the place he had been in.

"Hunter!" I yelled.

Yup. It was the Golem. He pulled himself up and immediately grabbed the column support under our bridge chunk. He brought us to his face and tilted us so that we fell.

Although frightened, I managed to push myself forward and grab onto the edge of the bridge. Thankfully, Spyro and Cynder did the same. The Golem lowered us back down, shook us, then slammed us into a wall.

The wall broke before we even hit it. We were sent tumbling into the room, unharmed. "Sparx?" I asked fearfully.

Sparx rose from the floor and shook dust off him. "I'm fine."

I breathed a sigh of relief and turned as the Golem slammed the bridge into the wall again. A moment later, he pulled himself higher up the wall until his head could nearly reach the hole and breathed fire. We jumped back and luckily escaped scorching ourselves.

I breathed a sigh of relief. I was lucky to be alive and I knew it. How many times had I evaded death? I was always so narrowly escaping it. Around every bend, there it was, taking me by surprise, and I couldn't help but wonder... when would it catch me?

I cleared my throat. "My life just gets crazier and crazier. First, I'm a dragon! And then, I'm a PURPLE dragon! And then I'm off on a perilous adventure! And then I'm on a pirate ship filled with homicidal dogs!" I exclaimed. Spyro raised an eyebrow a my quip. "And now, a hundred-foot tall lava-monster just tried to kill me! Wow! Wonder what's gonna happen next!"

Spyro rolled his eyes. "Let's just get out of here before he comes back," he said.

"That's fine, but what about—Ulch!" I was yanked forward by Spyro pulling on the chain.

"I'll have to use that more often," Spyro said, grinning.

I mocked laughter and glided after him. We walked and glided along until we came to a platform with a large green Spirit Gem in the middle of it. Hunter popped up over the edge and climbed onto the platform.

"Hunter. Give us a moment to gather our strength," Spyro said with a glance at Hunter.

"You might want to stand back. This can get weird," Sparx said, flying up beside Hunter.

"It is fascinating, how your kind draw strength from these crystals. Dragons are truly remarkable," Hunter said.

"Yeah, you say that now. 'Til one tries to kill you. And by one, I mean _her."_ Sparx said, pointing at Cynder. Cynder narrowed her eyes.

"I am aware of Cynder's past. But Ignitus trusts her, and that is good enough for me," Hunter replied.

Sparx abruptly turned around to see Cynder, who put on an innocent face. I suppressed a laugh.

"Go on, Cynder," Spyro said, seeing Cynder hesitate.

I sighed and sucked in my breath, putting a paw on the cool, inviting gem and absorbing the power within. I began to feel repowered immediately.

"Aah!" I exclaimed, jumping back as the crystal began to glow brightly and smaller crystals lifted up off the ground and revolved around it. "Is that supposed to happen?" I asked in disbelief.

Suddenly, a holographic form of the Chronicler appeared. I stared, shocked, as he began to speak. "Spyro, Crystal, as rare purple dragons, you can wield many abilities that others cannot. Now it is time to awaken these powers within you. Fire, electricity, ice, and earth."

I became bored immediately. I already knew all of this stuff. Why was he telling me. I quickly batted a rock in Spyro's direction.

"Cynder... while most other dragons can master only a single element..."

Sparx got smacked in the head with the rock. It had sailed past Spyro, got caught in the telekinetic field around the Spirit Gem, and came whipping back.

"...Your exposure to the darkness has given you powers most uncommon," the Chronicler continued.

As Sparx was recovering, the rock, which as I said had a gravitational pull to the crystal, hit him again.

"Poison, Fear, Wind, and Shadow." With that, the Chronicler was gone. The levitating rocks wobbled in the air for a moment before coming back down with a variety of thumps.

A moment later, a bunch of the tree-creatures that had attacked us earlier burrowed from out of the ground.

"Grublins. Be careful!" Hunter said, bounding up onto a higher platform. He took out his bow and aimed.

I rammed a grublin into the wall, killing it easily. I let out a bot of fire that killed at least four of the things next. Oh, that felt _good!_

"Don't let them surround you," Hunter instructed, letting an arrow fly that hit a grublin and sent it flying off the edge.

Taking his advice, I froze two more to ice blocks. Just then, a grublin managed to catch me unaware and knocked me off my feet. I rolled and managed to right myself before growling and ramming it off the edge.

"These vines block our path. We must get through," Hunter said, walking up to a doorway blocked with thick vines.

I breathed fire on the vines. They sunk into the ground, clearing the way, and we ran up the stairs ahead into another room.


	4. The Pretty Sparkly Blue Light

**A/N:**

**I have Writer's Blockage. Yes, blockage, not block. That means I have ideas, but I don't want to write. XD Anyway, I don't own Spyro, just Crystal. If you don't like the story, then MAH HAH!**

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"What's that?" I mused, walking forward. "It's a pretty sparkly ball of light!" I exclaimed childishly, my pupils dilating.

And it was. It was just a ball of blue light with a golden handle on top.

"Should we take it?" Cynder asked.

"Well, from past experiences, I'd say anything worth noticing is something we're going to need later," I said, picking up the light ball with my mouth. "Behides. Ihs eally pitty." I gave one last look at the nearly barren room and continued on.

I jumped onto a set of stair-like platforms. This ball of light was pretty heavy, considering it was... well, light.

As I jumped up the platforms, I noticed a light spray of water falling over the next. As I climbed up onto the next floor, I saw a small river up here bubbling happily over the edge.

"Hey, Hyro, whath's that?" I asked, pointing to a strange symbol on the wall with words above it. "It saths... eleclithity."

Spyro blinked before zapping the wall. We all looked up as some platforms rumbled out of the wall, allowing us to continue. Spyro slipped on the wet stone once, first strike of the curse, but he luckily wasn't hurt and didn't fall far enough to drag us down with him.

We climbed more platforms, and more platforms, and so very many more boring platforms. I wished I had the speed of Hunter, who had made his way to the top in the course of a few seconds. After a minute, we finally reached some stairs that led up to a door.

"Now lhat?" I asked, looking around. I noticed a hole in the ground that looked as if it would fit the ball and dropped in in there. The door opened and we all headed forward.

The room we entered was stone and had a pool of standing water in the bottom of it, ankle-high. There were carvings in the walls, mostly of strange faces. Torches on the wall flickered, reflecting off the light and giving it a nice ambiance. There were waterfalls here and there, trickling down into to room. Finally, there were various stone blocks rising out of the water and hanging off the ceiling. They were covered is thick moss.

It was almost pretty in here. At the very least, it was quiet, and that was more than the rest of the rooms could boast.

"There's a light up there. We must be getting close," Spyro said. I looked up where he was looking and saw light spilling in through a hole in the ceiling.

"I hope so. I'm NEVER coming back here again. I'm sure this place would be nice if it was fixed up, but it's seriously creeping the heck out of me," I said with a shiver.

"Here. This way. This leads to the surface!" Hunter exclaimed, bounding up the various blocks until he reached the top.

"Why does everyone ignore me?" I complained, walking forward.

I was hit with a drizzle of water from the ceiling. I sneezed and walked over to a block. I glanced at the water. Although I was thirsty, I wasn't about to drink it. This place made me way too uneasy. Who knows what poison lurked in those crystalline waters. I turned to the block and used the vines to pull myself to the top.

"Why didn't you just fly?" Cynder asked me.

"Because flying is exhausting. Why don't I just run everywhere? It's faster," I replied. "Plus, it's fun." I said, grinning, flapping over to a block hanging down from the ceiling in front of me, and grabbing onto the vines.

"We don't have time for fun," Spyro said, flying after me.

"Sheesh, you've gotten a disposition change. Where's that permanent smile that's always on your face?"

"_I've_ had a disposition change?" Spyro asked in disbelief. "Just a minute ago you were complaining, and now you're as cheery as a bird."

"I wasn't complaining," I said.

"Well," Spyro said matter-of-factly, "you were thinking about complaining!"

"Shut up," I snapped, gliding back over to the first block. As soon as I landed, I gave a swift yank of my neck and sent Spyro and Cynder tumbling into the water below.

I peeked over the edge of the block, a smug smile on my face. "Are you enjoying yourself?" I asked the soaked Spyro. "Here, let me help you," I said, reaching a paw down to pull him up.

"No, let me help _you!" _Spyro exclaimed, grabbing my outstretched paw and yanking me into the water.

I landed with a splash and scrambled to my feet. "SPYRO!" I yelled. I splashed him in fury.

"Are you enjoying yourself?" Spyro asked, a sparkle in his eyes. I growled. Spyro knew to run.

After a few minutes of messing around, we continued on. We flew about the platforms that were attached to the wall and suspended over the ground. Up and down and over, quite annoying. Hunter, who couldn't even fly, scaled each of the leaps easily. Talk about acrobatics!

Either way, the STUPID Golem STUPIDLY crawled over the edge of the chasm at the end of the room, OF COURSE, once we had arrived just before the largest waterfall in the room.

Once arrived, he proceeded to slam his fist into a pillar. The chunks that came whipping towards me would have taken my head off if I hadn't hit the floor.

"Keep going. I'll distract him," Hunter said, jumping across the waterfall and proceeding to distract the Golem.

We flew across to the other side while Hunter was keeping the Golem busy. Once or twice it slammed its fist into the wall in front of us and nearly crushed us, but otherwise we were a-okay!

"Hey, look out!" I heard Sparx yell as I ran forward and jumped onto some vines onto the wall, hanging there. The force of the waterfall's draft was pushing us down, so we couldn't just fly from platform to platform.

I blinked and looked up, before screaming and dropping off my high point on the wall as the Golem slammed his fist into the area I had been in a moment ago.

I screamed as I hit the ground, fighting the tears that came up and blurred my vision. With a growl, I stood up, despite my protesting body. We didn't have time for this!

Spyro and Cynder luckily weren't dragged down with me. I weakly flew up to them and managed to crawl across the vines to the next platform, but it was almost too much. I had fallen so high, but I was lucky I hadn't broken anything. I managed to hold fast to my consciousness, but if we didn't get out of here soon, the pain would overwhelm me.

"Spyro," I said woozily, grabbing Spyro as we jumped off the vines and landed on a stone platform. "If I die—"

"Don't say anything like that!" Spyro exclaimed.

I shook my head. "If I die, make sure..." I directed the statement at Cynder. "Make sure you'rethere to catch this purple putz when he trips, because if he isn't supervised, he's going to plummet to his death."

Spyro smacked my arm lightly and rolled his eyes.

"Just get me out of this hole!" I snapped, grabbing onto the vines and swinging myself up onto the platform above.

As we neared the waterfall, the Golem smashed his fist into it with a bit more force than necessary. His arm got stuck there. The Golem kept pulling and pulling, but he still couldn't free himself. Spyro winced slightly and looked away, knowing what was coming.

With a heave, the Golem pulled his arm away... but he left a part of it behind. I clenched my teeth. _Ouch._

With a roar of pain and fury, the Golem fell back into the chasm. I cautiously approached its arm. It looked like a Spirit Gem, but it was black and radiated an electric-like aura. I was reminded of the giant dark crystals from Concurrent Skies, that sapped my energy like these ones were doing now.

"What is that?" Spyro asked. "I've never seen one like that before."

"Should we absorb it? I don't feel right," I said cautiously.

"Spyro... be careful..." Cynder said.

"Thanks for the concern, Cyn," I said, rolling my eyes.

"Don't call me Cyn."

"Don't call me Crissie."

"Don't call me Miss Shadow."

"Don't call me Sparky. Or Tinkerbell!" Sparx interjected.

"What about Mo-squi-to, Mosquito?" I asked tauntingly.

"How about Navi?" Cynder said humorously. I grinned. Sparx scowled.

"Must you do that?" Spyro asked with a glare.

"No," I replied. "But I'm going to do it any—"

"It isn't natural. That crystal radiates with dark magic. Destroy it, quickly!" Hunter exclaimed, smartly interrupting me.

Spyro, Cynder, and I began to attack the various crystals attached to the arm. Finally, they broke, but they had sapped all of the energy I had left.

"Hey, Spyro, you remember that time I said I wanted to know what it felt like to faint?" I mumbled.

Spyro blinked. "Yeah. So?"

"Nighty-night." I fell over.

~~...~~

I screeched, abruptly wakened from my black wonderland by a blast of something cold. "S-s-s-s-s-p-p-p-p-p-py-r-r-r-ro?" I chattered.

"You needed to get up," Spyro replied, his voice laced with humor.

I growled and stood up. "How long have I been out?"

"About three minutes."

We were still on the same platform we had been when I first fainted. "You didn't have to breathe ice on me," I said, shivering.

Spyro grinned. "I know."

* * *

**A/N:**

**Have you ever wondered that if Crystal just *ahem* appeared in the DotD game what she would say when you switched to her? Mmmm...**

"**Move." **

**That's one. XD **

**You know what, what do YOU guys think Crystal would say? Hmm? Hmm? What's that? Is this just an excuse to make sure you review the story? Maybeh...**


	5. The Horn

**A/N:**

**Oh, guys, I have a surprise for you when Maggie's Tail is over... The Legend of Crystal 4! How is that possible, you say? Well, stop sayin' things! You'll see. But I'm doing something I swore I would never do. I'm making Spyro an... adult. *_Jaws_ theme plays* I don't own Spyro, but I DO own all my Crystal stories! And if you don't like the story, then how _rude!_**

* * *

"You feel better?" Spyro asked me.

"Yup. Now I can do this correctly."

"Ow!" Spyro exclaimed as I punched him hard in the shoulder, sending him stumbling. "What was that for?"

"Because I can." I smiled sweetly.

"I hate you," Spyro said flatly.

"I hate you more," I said, grinning and walking forward.

"Come on, guys, let's try to get out of here before that thing comes back," Sparx said as we finally reached the top of the waterfall and entered a room.

"He couldn't get to us in here," Cynder said.

"Did I ask you?" Sparx snapped.

"You didn't ask anything," I pointed out.

"Let's go!" Spyro exclaimed, stopping the argument before it started. I rolled my eyes and headed into the next room.

It was a small room, mostly just dirt and rocks. The back wall was covered with vines that blocked any path that might have been there before. I flew up to a raised area and followed Hunter through a doorway that looked as if it were about to collapse.

"We are close to the surface. It is best we remain... unheard," Hunter said, running forward.

"Alright, cheetah-man, I get the message. Sheesh," Sparx exclaimed.

"Unheard? With Crystal in the group? Good luck." Spyro rolled his eyes.

"Oh, real _mature," _I scoffed.

"When you two fight, you could wake up snakes," Sparx said, rolling his eyes.

I hissed at him and Sparx rushed away. I grinned once Sparx had been driven over to Cynder.

"If you're afraid of poison, you might not want to be near Cynder," I commented. Sparx gave one look at the grin of Cynder and flew back up beside me.

I ran down some stairs into the next room, holding back a cough. It was so dusty down there. The room we entered was large. A huge pit surrounded it on two sides, and before us laid a great door. Attached to the ceiling by chains was a horn lying on a wooden board.

"The horn. It must be a part of some sort of locking mechanism," Hunter said, his voice low.

"Honestly," Sparx said. "Why not just a lock an key like normal folks?" I nodded in agreement.

"Look around. There must be something we can use to lower it," Hunter said.

"How about the conveniently placed switch?" I asked, pointing to the left side of the wall that we had come from.

"Worth a shot," Sparx said.

The switch was like most switches, except it lacked the usual handle that you could push up or down. There were two rollers, one on either side. The rollers were smooth wheels that, when pushed downwards, used a pulley system to lower or raise things—in this case, the horn.

"How do we work it?" I wondered aloud, walking over to the switch.

"It looks like you should roll it downwards," Cynder said.

I placed my forelegs onto the switch and attempted to roll down, but it wouldn't budge. "I think two people have to do it," I said, hopping back down onto four legs.

"Let me help you," Spyro said.

We hopped onto the switch and pushed our weight down. We had to keep adjusting ourselves so we wouldn't fall. The horn began to descend from the ceiling until it touched down with a light plunk. As soon as we finished, some grublins popped out of the ground and attacked us.

Cynder breathed fear on one of the grublins. I cringed.

"Ow! That's loud!" I complained.

"It's supposed to be loud," Cynder said.

"Well, it's still loud!"

Cynder looked at me with indifference.

"Just blow the horn!" I said, exasperated. Cynder walked over to the horn and breathed wind into it. The door slowly began to open.

"Hurry up and open the door! Open, open, open!" Sparx obnoxiously exclaimed.

"SHE OPENED IT!" I screamed, my voice echoing back to me.

I heard a growl.

* * *

**A/N:**

**Here's some more Crystal switchy-things...**

"**My turn!"**

***when switched to near a cliff or chasm* "Spyro, you're about to fall off the edge. Now, don't you give me that look, you klutz! You know you were going to!"**

***when switched to Spyro and near a bridge* "Um... you go across first, Spyro."**

"**Let's go!"**

**"Follow me!"**

***when switched to with low health* "These Gremlins are killing us!"/"I don't think I'm going to make it..."/"Hey, Spyro... K-keep an eye on Sparx for me..."**


	6. Golemaphobia and Gremlins

**A/N:**

**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! GUYS! GUYS! ACTIVISION EMAILED ME TELLING US THAT THEY'RE CANCELLING SKYLANDERS AND DOING THE NEXT LEGEND OF SPYRO TRILOGY INSTEAD! ...AND CRYSTAL'S IN IT!**

**I bet you're going all like, OMGWTFBBQ really? :D**

**No. April Fools. :3**

**Lol, I bet now you're all like, *Aladdin Genie jaw drop* xD You should see the look on your face! **

* * *

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" I screamed as the Golem rose up from the pit below with a crash and loomed above us. He breathed fire on the platform, but we luckily managed to jump out of its range.

"I have Golemaphobia!" I yelled at Spyro. He only dragged me out of the way of the Golem's fist as he slammed it on the ground.

The Golem tried to snatch up Spyro, but he missed. Unfortunately, he swiftly swiped at Cynder and picked her up.

"Cynder!" Spyro yelled.

"How do we get her out of there? !" I exclaimed.

"Pull!"

Spyro began pulling at the line that tethered us together. I quickly followed suit. Maybe if we could pull hard enough, the Golem would drop Cynder. After a few seconds of straining forward, Cynder flew out of the Golem's hand and landed, more or less unharmed, beside us.

"This way! Quickly!" Hunter yelled, running through the door that had opened by now.

"Right behind you!" I yelled shakily, hopping into the air and darting forward.

Spyro flew beside me, dodging a blow from the Golem and going through the hallway. I glanced back at Cynder.

She was right behind me at first, but she began to fall behind. The Golem must have damaged her wings, because she was flapping and flapping and not really getting anywhere. And the Golem's hand was right behind her.

"Come on, Cynder!" I yelled, my heart pounding frantically.

What would happen if she got tired out? What would happen if the Golem caught her? Or smashed her into the wall?

The Golem's hand suddenly stopped reaching forward. Cynder had outrun it. I breathed a sigh of relief as Cynder landed beside us.

The Golem roared, furious to have lost his prey. He began slamming his arm into the sides of the wall. The ceiling crumbled and collapsed. Boulders blocked the entrance, but that was no matter. We weren't going that way.

"Good riddance. Let's get the heck out of here," I said.

"What was that thing?" Spyro asked.

"There'll be time for that," Hunter answered. How helpful. "We'll follow the river; it'll lead us to shelter where we can rest. Then we're off to Warfang, the dragon city, where Ignitus will be expecting us."

I breathed a sigh of relief. Right about now, rest sounded pretty good, and it would be nice to see Ignitus again.

Spyro and Cynder exchanged glances and followed Hunter as he padded off down the hall. After a few minutes of walking, we reached a river, flowing freely through the cave, dancing and singing about.

"Ah, I can smell actual real fresh air," I said, stopping to breathe in the clear oxygen.

"Actual and real mean the same thing," Spyro said. I flicked his forehead. "Ow!"

"DON'T correct me!" I snapped.

"Look, we just slept in a crystal for three years. We're all going to be a little annoyed with each other. But for now, we don't have time for this!" Cynder snapped.

"...She's right," I said, glaring at Spyro.

"We'll settle our differences later," Spyro replied.

"Oh, how diplomatic of you," I said sarcastically.

"...Idiot."

"Moron."

"Stupid."

"Ignoramus."

"Fine."

"Fine."

"Won-der-ful."

"Whim-si-cal."

We plodded off towards the end of the cave.

First we had to fly into the air and weave our way through some rocky beams supporting the ceiling. We landed and waded the rest of the way when the water become shallow.

"Oh, man, it's night? I really felt like it was day. You know, Spyro, didn't you used to say—Oh, _wow!" _I exclaimed.

Of course, that was not what Spyro used to say. What had happened to me was that I had gazed at the most beautiful sight I had ever seen in my life.

Oh, you should have seen it. The moons, one only as big as my paw and the other wider than I was, were casting her illumination over the river below, sparkling and dancing on the water. I was standing on a rock that was just slightly overhanging the waterfall below me. The waterfall didn't go straight down; it ambled along at an an angle. Although the waters seemed to be calm and inviting, I knew that they could drag you down in a snap. A copse or a small forest was at the bottom, and fireflies flitted through the trees.

Hunter bounded past Spyro, Cynder, Sparx, and I, jumping nimbly down the various rocks to the bottom.

"Wow... that's beautiful!" Cynder exclaimed. Even Spyro and Sparx nodded in agreement.

"Hey..." I said, as I spotted a small wooden piece of wood floating along the river towards the falls. "Watch this!" I grabbed the board and hopped on it, then proceeded to slide down the waterfall.

Spyro and Cynder exchanged glances and took to the air after me. They had no choice, really.

As I slid down the waterfall, water arcing around the wood, Spyro and Cynder caught up and flew on either side of me.

"Crystal! Get off there, you're going to hurt yourself!" Spyro yelled, as I banked left away from a rock.

I scoffed at Spyro. "Please, Spyro, just because we're on a perilous adventure does not mean I am going to drop my reckless streak. I know what I'm doing."

"If you know what you're doing, then why aren't you dodging that rock?" Sparx, who had caught up, asked.

"Rock? There's no—" I gasped, as there was indeed a rock. Now, if I hadn't reacted fast enough and jumped off the board, I probably would have broken something or worse.

I laughed nervously once I was in the air. "I'm never doing anything reckless again." It's true. After that, I almost always thought things out before doing them.

Okay. One-tenth of the time. What? Spontaneity is practically my whole personality!

I landed on the ground and breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh, ground and air, I love you!" I said happily.

"We can't stay here forever," Spyro noted, landing beside me.

"Awww," I groaned. "Fine... just mark this on my list of places to come back to." I walked forward.

As I treaded through the grass, I heard a crunching noise and a few growls. I sighed. "I hate gremlins."

We turned around to face the gremlins that quickly surrounded us. Some were flying about, and as they were only shadows in the night, those were the ones hardest to defeat. They hit me, and hit me, and hit me, coming in from every angle, until I was dizzy and confused. Finally, I got fed up and spewed out fire in random directions.

"Ow!" I heard.

"Sorry."

Spyro glared at me. "You singed me."

"Well...at least the gremlins are dead!" I optimistically exclaimed.

"It's grublins."

I glared at Spyro. "Yes, it is, and you know what?"

"What?"

"You're annoying."

"Oh?"

"Yes."

"And?"

I rolled my eyes and shoved Spyro into the water. I laughed. "Somehow I feel that would have been more enjoyable had that been muddy swamp water like usual."

Spyro slowly turned to glare at me. I knew to run.

* * *

**A/N:**

**Siblings, huh? XD Sorry for the long wait. Writer's Blockage. **


	7. Chayton the Peregrine Falcon

**A/N:**

**Block_age!_ BLOCKAGE! Not Block! I do not have Writer's Block, I have Writer's BlockAGE! I do not own Crystal's brother Spyro. I also don't own most of the fireside scene, because that belongs to GoldenGriffiness. I only own Crystal. And if you don't like the story, then don't read it.**

* * *

I wish I could say that I had enough time for mucking about Twilight Falls, but I didn't. I knew I would come back to this place, though. We followed Hunter, me gazing around at the beauty of it all.

"Oh yeah. _Definitely _coming back," I said to myself.

As we were following Hunter, we passed through a small cave, lit by iridescent mushrooms that glowed brightly, lighting up our path. They only added to the beauty of this place. Not even the Swamp had mushrooms like that.

We kept going for about a half hour. We were stopped because of the occasional Gremlin attack, but otherwise the journey was relatively peaceful. Not counting the Giant Super Gremlin attack, where this giant rocky mass, about Hunter's height, popped out of the ground and attacked us, of course. Good thing my earth breath worked pretty well in that situation.

We pushed a tree down to make bridge across the stream and headed into a small clearing.

"I'll wait for you at the top of the cliff..." I heard Hunter murmur. And then he was gone.

I sighed and approached a red gem. I hit it half-heartedly and plopped in the grass to wait for Spyro and Cynder.

I felt lucky to be a dragon who could absorb Spirit Gems just about then. Now, for other creatures, they had to resort to herbs and whatnot, and that works on us too, but we can just hit/absorb (Whichever is more convenient) a gem and... whoop! We're healed.

Of course, I thought to myself, it's not like the power of these things are unlimited. If you're mortally wounded, Spirit Gems aren't going to do much for you. You're dead. Bye-bye. Same goes for large wounds. Unfortunately, Spirit Gems could only do so much.

"I don't feel like flyinnnggggg," I groaned.

"That's fine," Spyro said. "We could just leave you down here and let you sleep with the grublins."

I glared at him and stood up, even though I knew it wouldn't be possible for them to climb up the cliff and leave me down there.

"Normal or express?" I asked sarcastically.

"Ha ha, very—" He was cut off as I dragged him into the air.

~~...~~

We walked along, plodding through what Hunter told us was the Enchanted Forest. I heard a bird's shrill cry from far away.

"We've arrived," Hunter said under his breath, probably to himself.

"What was that noise?" I asked.

"That is one of my falcons, Chayton," Hunter replied, continuing up a steep hill until we reached the top and a cliff. On two sides were the forest, but we had a fairly large area of clearing. I gazed down the cliff, but I was only met with a sea of trees far below.

Sitting on the branch of a tree was a dark brown falcon—Chayton. His under-feathers were a light brown, sort of a honey color. They reached up almost to his face. His eyes were large and black, and he wore some sort of a small pendant on his neck.

Spyro, Sparx, Cynder and I settled down, and Hunter held out his arm. Chayton flew over and perched on his arm, holding his wings out for balance.

"Go. Tell Ignitus I have found them," Hunter said. He waved his arm out, and Chayton cried his falcon cry and flew off into the night.

~~...~~

Hunter had made a small fire. The night wore on slowly. I wanted to sleep, but I was not tired, so I settled on using a little fire-magic trick I had taught myself to make the fire... oh... pop, I should say; making it wave around a little and jump up suddenly. Hunter watched with mild interest.

Cynder, meanwhile, was grabbing at the necklace-shocky-pendant thing and pulling at it. Spyro stared at her.

"Ugh! It's no use!" Cynder exclaimed.

"Maybe if we twisted it?" Spyro suggested.

"Twist _what? _It's magic!" Cynder and I looked at each other with surprise, having made the same retort at the same time. We both grinned and edged closer together.

"Tag team some time," I muttered with a grin.

Cynder grinned back "Anytime."

Sparx hit his face. "The two most terrifying creatures on earth just formed as alliance, GREAT!"

"What?" I asked, faking a hurt sugar sweet voice. "We can't be worse than Malefor."

"I have my doubts.." Sparx flew away from me, completely forgetting about Cynder who had positioned herself behind him.

"Boo."

"Ahhhhhhhh!" Sparx flew away, only to smack into Spyro's chest. "She's gonna eat me!"

"No, I'd dispose of you in another way; throw you into Boyzitbig or feed you to Crystal's spiders. You're not fancy enough for my taste!" Cynder said, with a slight roll of her eyes.

"Ahhhh!" Sparx hid behind Spyro's horn. "Spyro, buddy, you've gotta protect me!"

"Gee, Sparx, I don't think you'd taste that good anyway," I said, flopping onto the ground. "You really think that Frogweed spit you out because Spyro hit it?" Sparx glared at me.

Spyro rolled his eyes and lied down, crossing his forelegs. "I take it we're staying here for the night?"

"Most likely." Hunter leaned regally against a tree, careful not to get himself mixed up in our little GAME. "I believe so."

* * *

**A/N:**

***Ice skating theme from Spyro 3 playing***


	8. Captured

**A/N:**

**By 'ice skating theme', I meant the one from the original Spyro 3, not DotD. The one where you help that polar bear girl ice skate without being smacked by the hockey Rhynocs. Remember?And then Moneybags threw an egg at her. XD**

**I don't own Spyro, only Crystal. And if you don't like the story, I'll eat you.**

* * *

Hunter was standing at the edge of the cliff, gazing out below. Spyro and I stood up and walked up beside him.

I gazed out over the forest. In the distance was a volcano, spewing lava and light. The sky in the distance was bright red, glistening with the fear of thousands.

"The Dark Master... he's returned... hasn't he?" Spyro asked, speaking what I had been wanting to ask ever since I woke up.

"I'm afraid so," Hunter replied. Our heads slightly lowered at that comment. "He returned shortly after your disappearance."

I gazed out at the volcano again. This was my fault.

"He struck quickly, fueled by hatred and malice..." That was not helping. "...Reclaiming the throne at the Temple which, through some dark magic, he now suspends above the land, a symbol of his dominance. And every day his forces grow stronger... and ours lose hope."

Thank you, Hunter. That cheered me up tremendously. I was most certainly in the clouds of joy then. But, in all seriousness, that was what I needed to know and I wasn't going to blame Hunter for telling me.

I went and sat down by the fire again, the others joining me.

"I failed... They were all counting on me and I failed..." Spyro said.

I gave him a sympathetic look. "If anyone failed, it's me. I just slowed you down. I should have just stayed behind," I gazed down into the fire.

"Some things are beyond your control. You shouldn't blame yourself," Cynder said.

I sighed. She knew that lesson well enough, I supposed, but it didn't help.

"Spyro, Crystal, you are lucky to be alive... all of you. That was no ordinary creature back there. It was an ancient Earth Golem from the deep... they are the embodiment of destruction, summoned by Malefor himself! These... are dark times," Hunter said.

"He needs to be stopped. We have to stop him!" Spyro and I said together. Huh. That was_ one_ thing we could agree on, at least. Bicker, bicker, bicker. It never ends.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Spark exclaimed, flying over beside us. "Slow down, tough guys. We don't need to go around picking fights!"

Since when have I _not _been going around picking fights?

"I mean, we just woke up after being froze for three years!" Sparx continued. "Got stuff to do."

I rolled my eyes. "Sparx, this is kind of more important than your 'stuff to'—" I began, just before Cynder went flying sideways and there was a flash of light. I jumped back.

"What the—is she sleepy?" Sparx asked.

This time, I saw it coming. "Hey!" I cried.

A flash of green flashed past my face and hit Spyro. Next thing I knew, I was down. I began to lose consciousness...

~~...~~

I awoke to the playful push of wind and the sound of crackling electricity. I raised my head drowsily and opened my eyes, wondering where in the world I was.

Before me was a village. Surrounding it was a wall. There were open houses on stilts here and there. The place seemed to be nearly deserted, except for the occasional cheetah.

I glanced back, to see green electricity of the chains holding us to a giant pillar or flagpole of some sort. A red flag waved on the top of it. That explained the crackling noise, at least. There was something attached around the pole that tethered our chains to it and prevented us from moving very far.

I blinked and gazed upwards. Sparx was in a lantern suspended above us. I resisted the urge to grin and glanced at Cynder, who was already awake and staring at Spyro.

Spyro was beginning to come to. The second he came into full consciousness, he was on his feet, looking like a bewildered wolf cub who had ventured away from his den; thrust into a massive, erratic world.

Where Spyro looked, I looked, and just then I noticed Hunter. He was tied to a pole not unlike ours by rope. Hunter and Spyro exchanged glances, before turning to see figures approaching us.

There was a dark orange cheetah, dressed in red robes. He carried a sword engraved with carvings on the hilt. The sword itself was made of steel. The cheetah had the air of... what's the word? Arrogance? Not quite, but that will do.

Behind the orange cheetah were two others. One was a perplexing blue color, while the other was light yellow... with a strange green tint. Both of them were wielding staves. In any case, it was obvious they were coming for _us._

Fear began to spark through me, but I wasn't sure why. I shook my head and glared at the intruders.

"Dragons. Bah!" the cheetah in red exclaimed. "Do you have such little respect for our laws that you would form an alliance with the very ones that caused out misfortunes? !" He had shifted his glare from Spyro, Cynder, and I to Hunter.

"Chief Prowlus," Hunter said calmly. "Malefor, he alone is the one responsible. These dragons are our last hope. You must see that!"

"Well. At least _someone _is seeing things with an open mind," I said flatly. This seemed to anger Reddie even more.

"Yes, yes, the purple dragon, I know the story. But unlike you, I have not forgotten what they said Malefor was like when he was young, and I have not forgotten either... what _she _has done!" He pointed accusingly at Cynder.

This enraged me beyond the point of return. Who was he to judge me or Cynder? ! He did not know Cynder, there was no way he could understand, but that could not justify his actions.

I rose to my feet. "You horrible person! How _dare _you!" I exclaimed with a stamp of my foot. "You have no right to say such things about any of us!" At that point I seriously considered frying him with a fireball, but one look from Spyro managed to calm me down. I sat back down with a huff.

With a triumphant look in his eyes, Reddie continued. "I relied on you Hunter, as I was to rely on all of us in this village to protect it! But you chose to abandon us, and bring the dangers of the outside world with you when you returned!" Hunter and Red were at eye-level now.

"_Dangers _are already around us. Don't pretend to ignore them!" Hunter exclaimed, still completely unfazed.

I found it completely amazing how he could just stay so calm... I was always bound to fly into a rage, just as I had a moment ago. Sometimes I was calm... although I had a strange feeling it was only for comedic effect on my part.

"Hey, can't you guys just stop arguing? It's getting awkward for everybody," Sparx said, leaning back on the wall of the lantern.

"Shut it, Pixie Dust, I wanna hear the fight!" I exclaimed, sensing Sparx's annoyed glare.

Suddenly, a yell resounded across the village. "Grublins! In the valley!" The cry came from a high watchtower on one side of the entrance to the village. "Prepare your weapons!"

"Huh? I don't see any... Uh-ohhh..." The gremlins were FLYING! They could come in right over the walls! And they were holding something explosive as well! Not dynamite, but...

They dropped one of the explosive devices on a house. It sit it on fire. Reddie started and the strangely-perplexing-blue cheetah ran off.

"Now see what you've done? !" Red yelled back.

Spyro sprung to the end of his chain. "Let us go! We can help!" he yelled.

Cynder stood up from the relaxed at-ease position she had been in before with a nod of agreement.

"Our warriors can handle this," Reddie said belligerently.

"Now is not the time to be stubborn," Cynder said, walking up beside Spyro.

"I don't know. I just don't like him; he chains us up and all. Why help him? He didn't help _us."_ I said, still annoyed.

"Crystal, you have a valid point, but we need to help these people!" Spyro retorted.

"Whatever. You're the leader. Or at least that's what I let you think," I said, the last part under my breath, hidden by a grin.

"Hey. A lot of weird stuff happens when they get upset. I'd listen to them if I were you," Sparx said to Red. He gazed thoughtfully at Sparx, then brandished a small key. He walked past us and released us from our chain.

I stepped forward, glad to be free. "Let's kill some gremlins."


	9. Uncaptured

**A/N:**

**Hooray for chapters! I don't own Spyro. Just Crystal, who I put in Disabled Land because I'm mad at her. (In the PC version of The Elder Scrolls, you can disable things with console commands. Disabled Land is a place I made up. That's where things you disabled go. It's dark and black there. Unless you disable the sky, anyway.) And if you don't like the story I'll give you BRIDGEAPHOBIA!**

* * *

I shook my head to clear it before running forward into the already frantic battlefield.

A few cheetahs were running about, defending their home, but the conniving gremlins' intentions were far worse than simply picking off the cheetahs. They were going for the houses and walls, destroying anything and everything they could.

The huts didn't come down easily. They were strong and sturdily built, but still. Enough power, and they were done for.

I ran forward. I had to be very delicate about this. Setting the houses on fire even more than they already were wouldn't do, and a blast of earth would send them caving in. Lightning would also set them on fire, and freezing the stilts would cause the house to collapse. How annoying.

I sighed and went in, using melee to attack the unsuspecting _creatures. _I stopped to put out a flame on one of the building with my ice breath and swooped down, delivering a killing blow to one of the gremlins. I heard one of the cheetahs yell out something and shoot the incoming gremlins with bows.

Cynder knocked two up into the air, and I proceeded to shock them to death. The rest of the battle proceeded normally. Once, I a small gash in my right shoulder, but otherwise, I was unharmed.

I didn't notice the figures approaching us until I glanced up to see where Sparx was and found him gazing up at the sky. I looked where he did, and noticed something flying quickly towards us. My face brightened a little as I noticed they were the forms of dragons.

"Look! Dragons! Yes! We are saved!" Sparx cheered.

As the figures flew closer, though, I noticed something strange about them... they were too thin... too wavy... like scraps of paper on the breeze. Then, as they came close enough so we could see them clearly, my face lost its brightness.

"Sparx..." I said in a warning tone.

Gremlins.

"Aaah! Those aren't dragons! We are all going to die!" Sparx yelled.

The things were red, and highly flexible. When one part of them waved up, another went downwards, like waves in the ocean. It wasn't apparent how they were flying, as they had no wings. Maybe they glided on the air? No matter. They were enemies, a thing to be killed. Still, I couldn't help but wonder how they attacked. I found out the answer to that quickly. All they did was bash their head at you, but_ ouch, _it hurt!

The gremlins flew up to us and knocked us over, or hit us, or sent us flying into the air. I couldn't use fury for fear it would destroy the village, and it was almost impossible to fight them. But, we managed. Finally, the last gremlin was dead.

"Is everyone alright?" Red asked. His voice was hoarse.

"No," a cheetah said, walking through the gathering crowd. "Meadow is missing. He had gone upstream to search for herbs this morning and has not returned." The cheetah was the odd blue color and put most of his weight on his staff.

Red didn't reply, only gazed thoughtfully at the cheetah.

"We have to go find him!" the blue cheetah said in a demanding tone.

"No. It's too dangerous to mount a search now," Red replied. Some of the cheetahs turned their saddened gazes to the ground.

Annoyance swelled up in me. He was just going to leave this 'Meadow' person to die?

"I'll go. I'll find your missing friend," Spyro said immediately.

I did not object. Actually, I _wanted _to go, for two reasons. One, just to spite Chief Idiot, and two, just to help. Not like I had any other options.

"Hunter can come with us," Spyro continued.

Reddie contemplated this for a moment. He gazed at Hunter who was still tied to the pole. "You are free to act as you see fit, but Hunter stays here," he said after a few seconds. I gave an annoyed snort. "However, if you remain true to your word and come back with Meadow, I may reconsider. And don't bother returning before then, as you'll likely succeed only in attracting more grublins to our village."

I gave a final glare, before running off with Spyro and Cynder. Fine.

"So, where are we supposed to look, anyway?" I growled, flying just behind the others. After nearly falling from flying too slow, I landed and caught up with the them.

"I'm not sure. He can't be far from here," Spyro replied.

"And what if he's dead? Then what do we do?" I demanded.

Spyro didn't reply. He just continued to walk forward. Some flying gremlins popped out of the ground.

"Agh! I hate these things!" I yelled with irritation, grabbing one off me and slamming him onto the ground. I froze the rest and left them to Spyro and Cynder. "You know, I'd do anything just to get those stupid apes back! They're better than these _things." _I gestured to a dead gremlin.

"I've gotten enough of the apes to last a lifetime." Cynder replied shortly.

I didn't answer, just trudged in the direction of the river. "They said he went upstream. I guess if we follow this river, we'll find him," I said, trotting along the bank.

As we followed the river a short way, up to a waterfall, I noticed something. Sparx noticed it too.

"Hey, look! What's back there? HELLO!" he called, flying up to a cave behind the waterfall and yelling into it. I swatted at Sparx, but he was smart enough to duck.

"Keep it down, Sparkles! Remember what happened at Dante's Freezer," I growled, following Spyro inside.

We walked single-file down the dark tunnel. The only illumination came from sprouts of glowing orange and purple mushrooms. That's when I began to hear the noises. And, when we entered a big room in the cave, that's when I saw Meadow, suspended from the wall. Some sort of strange balls attached to his legs and arms held him there.

We ran up to him, but before we could try to release him, a big gremlin, with a large, mean-looking axe, sprang out out of the ground. I couldn't make out its features, except for a pair of glowing blue eyes the same color as his axe, and the fact that it stood taller than us.

"It's a trap!" Cynder exclaimed. I would have glared at her for stating something that obvious if I wasn't being swung at by the big gremlin. Cynder dove in, distracting it, and I proceeded to flame it. It went after me again, but Cynder saved me—again—and shot a burst of fear at it. The gremlin was locked in place, and Spyro finished it off with earth.

More came out of the ground, all with different colored weapons, as well as many smaller gremlins. Luckily, all were dispatched with relative ease. Spyro got slashed a few times, but he was fine.

Meadow began to fall from his perch on the wall. The balls holding him unrolled, revealing themselves to be gremlins.

I glared at them and bluff-rushed them. They dived into the ground. "Hmph!" I growled. Now that that was out of the way, we walked over to Meadow to see if he was okay.

"Thank you... friends. You saved my life," Meadow said weakly, sitting up.

Meadow was burnt orange and was enveloped in black spots. The area around his eyes was shaded black, and his eye color appeared to be an extremely dull purple. He was clothed in orange and green.

"Finally! Some gratitude. You're welcome," Sparx said, almost smugly.

"You've met Chief Prowlus, no doubt. Not all of us are of the same mind," Meadow said, sitting up completely. I snorted.

"Well, that's putting it mildly, isn't it?" Cynder asked sarcastically.

"Can you move? We need to get you out of here," Spyro said.

Meadow pushed on one leg in an attempt to get up and shook his head. "I'm sorry... I'm afraid my leg is broken. Just go back to the village and tell them where I am," he said. Spyro glanced at Cynder, and I glanced at him.

"Your leader doesn't trust us," Spyro said.

"Actually, he hates us," I interrupted.

"If we return without you, he'll likely assume the worst," Spyro continued.

"Yeah, and blame us for it," Cynder said flatly.

"Oh, the fool," Meadow growled to himself. "I understand. There is a raft at the far end of the valley. If you could bring it here, perhaps I could pull myself onto it."

"Okay. We'll do it," Spyro said.

"To launch it, you'll need the weights from the supply cave. But it's locked," Meadow explained.

"Oh, that figures," Sparx muttered.

"Didn't see that coming," I agreed, voice dripping with sarcasm.

"There is a hermit who lives beneath the waterfall at the other end of the valley. He has a key. But the cave is hidden. Look for the markings on the wall to open the path," Meadow said.

"Oh, psst, easy. Uh, raft, cave." Sparx made indistinct mumbling sounds. "Got it! Yes!" I rolled my eyes and shook my head.

"We'll come back for you. I promise," Spyro and I said together. We turned and headed out of the cave.

"So, now we go downstream," I said with a sigh. "Can't we just break down the supply cave door?"

"It's locked for a reason, Crystal," Spyro said.

"Well, they've had enough destroyed today! It's not like a little door is going to make any difference!" I exclaimed brightly.

Spyro gave a side glare to me.

"Sheesh, someone's serious," I grumbled, plodding along after him.


	10. The Hermit

**A/N:**

***is in a cast* Remind me never to put Crystal in disabled land ever again... or at least don't let me take her out again. I don't own Spyro, just Crystal, and if you don't like the story I'll eat Sparx. :D**

* * *

The beauty of Avalar just knocked me over. The way the sun shone on the valley with every bit of its might could cheer you up and make you feel better any day. The grass was lush and green, and the water was clear and laughing and... oh, it was just indescribable! I could feel the earth breathing beneath my feet!

Not that we had time for that. But I still couldn't help but feel it. It's like when you accidentally eavesdrop on a conversation... you aren't listening, though you couldn't help but hear.

We had flown towards the other side of the valley, where another waterfall rested. One thing about Avalar I didn't like, though, was that the peace was so easily shattered. Gremlins attacked us the moment we landed, of course.

I had very little patience for them right then, so I burned them all, not stopping until I ran out of breath. There was nothing left of the bodies, and we continued on. Finally, we reached the other waterfall.

"Wait... this is wrong. There's nothing here..." I said, looking around.

"Maybe it's a different waterfall?" Spyro suggested. I shook my head.

"Meadow said it was _here," _I insisted.

"What about this?" I turned to see Spyro, trying to push on a rock sticking out of the wall. Finally, he blasted it with earth, revealing a passageway.

"I knew you were good for something," I said with a grin, running into the cave first. Spyro rolled his eyes and followed.

The place we emerged to was much like the valley—actually, it was a part of the valley—but the sun seemed to shine less brightly here. A rapid ran through the narrow, rocky passageway. That was the only outstanding feature of this place.

Except for the crows. There were so many here, sitting on the cliffs and gazing at us with those cold eyes.

As we flew with the river, we came upon a mass of fallen trees and branches, leaning over yet another waterfall. I flew over to the edge and gazed down. I couldn't see this bottom of where the falls drained into, only hazy mist.

This place reminded me of Tall Plains. Silent and scary, but full of life... or _unlife,_as I was to learn soon.

With nowhere to go, I turned and noticed something like a pathway jutting out of the wall. Motioning for the others to follow, I flew up onto the wall-path and walked along it, flying over the various gaps.

We walked along like this for a while, until it began to rain, the sky darkening in the storm's wake. I sighed, half happy and half annoyed. It was getting hot, but getting drenched wasn't what I had in mind to cool off.

After walking awhile, we came to a dead tree and a series of pathways higher up the cliff. Spyro pushed on the tree, and his own weight was enough to topple it and make a ramp for us. After flying off the platforms, we landed on the ground in a clearing.

"It's too quiet," Cynder said.

"No kidding. And who cares, anyway?" Sparx replied sarcastically.

That's when I noticed them. Watching us.

"Spyro...!" I didn't mean for my voice to be that shrill, but I could feel my blood run cold.

"What is it, Cry—" He froze when I saw what I saw. Four blue, skeletal spirits gazing at us with cold hatred. Cynder's face showed shock and surprise, but most confusing to me... recognition?

That's when they came at us. I backed off, breathing earth and knocking a few back. Spyro followed suit and hit them with blasts of fire, Cynder finishing them off with shadow.

"What in the world was that? !" Spyro cried.

Nobody had time to reply, as more of the skeletal creatures came, attacking us with their bony claws. They surrounded us and began to overwhelm us. It took most of our strength just to kill them all, but finally, we managed to drive them back or kill them.

"What _were _those things?" I panted. They just couldn't seem to die! When they went down, they came back up.

Nobody noticed the figure standing over by a wall at first. I felt someone watching me and looked up. There was a cheetah standing there, white instead of the usual yellow color. He was wearing an olive-colored cloak, a hood hiding most of his facial features. All I noticed was that one eye was orange and one was white. He held a long staff with a strange blue orb on top of it.

"Come closer," the cheetah said. "So I can see you in the light." He sounded old. I knew then that he was the hermit.

Obediently, the party walked closer to him. This cheetah... in a way, he frightened me. I shook the silly thought off and blinked.

"Tell me, why have you returned here?" the hermit asked. I gave a quizzical glance to Spyro.

"What do you mean? I've never been here before," Spyro said.

"Not you! The female!" the hermit exclaimed, pointing at Cynder.

"You must be mistaken," Cynder said.

"Indeed, your appearance has changed, but not your eyes." The hermit pointed at his white eye. "Your eyes give everything away..."

I glanced at Cynder. She looked calm enough, almost expressionless.

"You are the black dragon, Cynder. The Terror of the Skies... the Dark Master's puppet," the hermit continued.

"I was... but... I'm not anymore. I-I'm not proud of the things I've done," Cynder said sincerely.

I glanced away from Cynder and around the area. Sparx had disappeared.

_He's probably just looking around, _I thought. I nearly cringed. Every time Sparx just 'looks around', bad things happen.

"Oh, is it that simple... to turn your back on Malefor?" the hermit asked. My eyes narrowed. I was not liking the way he was taking this conversation.

_Neither does Cynder, _I thought. She refused to look at the hermit, and I saw the guilty glint in her eyes.

"You don't have to listen to him. Cynder," Spyro said, walking up beside Cynder. If he was going to say something else, he was interrupted by a growl from the clifftops.

"Did you not recognize the creatures that moved in the shadows? The apes, too, had served the Dark Master, but more for their own greed and thirst for power than any true loyalty," the hermit said, gesturing up at the cliff, where some of the skeletal apes stared down at us. Cynder was glaring at the hermit now.

"This is how Malefor repaid them... doomed to remain in the dark... feeding off the power of others, never being fulfilled..." The hermit had a glint in his eyes now. "You can run," he said, raising his finger. "But you cannot hide, Cynder!" At this, the hermit broke into laughter that was almost _evil._ Cynder lowered her head.

"Cynder! Let's go!" Spyro exclaimed, he and Cynder walking off quickly. I considered attacking the hermit, but pushed that thought off. I knew I mustn't attack people simply because I was angry at them. I merely growled to myself and plodded off after Spyro and Cynder.

The hermit laughed again. "The Dark Master will find you..." the hermit called after us, taunting us.

It was all I could do not to spin around and _kill _him now! I was nothing short of enraged. I released a breath and managed to calm myself.

"Cynder...are you okay?" Spyro asked once we were far away from the hermit.

"I'm fine!" Cynder snapped. When she noticed the hurt look on Spyro's face, she spoke again with a more calm tone. "I'll be fine."

"Well, I'm not!" Sparx exclaimed, flying in front of us and making us stop, to get our attention. He was holding his hands behind his back. "Was I the only one who was freaked out by this guy?" He grumbled something to himself, most likely mocking the hermit. "Sheesh! Okay, at least it wasn't a complete waste of time. ...Tadaaa!" He brandished the key to the storage house.

"Sparx, you little pickpocket!" I exclaimed with a laugh. Spyro and Cynder were clearly surprised. They exchanged glances.

"Come on, whatcha waitin' for?" Sparx asked. We all headed for the exit.


	11. It Has Begun

**A/N:**

**Okay, OKAY. HERE is the next chapter. But be sure to check out ma new storeh when you're done reading this. Hourglass. I do notown Spyro or Sparx or Cynder or whatever. Only Crystal and her red ego. And if you don't like the story, go read Hourglass instead.**

* * *

It didn't take long to find the supply cave. We just followed the path the cheetahs had made, and there we were.

The supply cave was full of—well, supplies. Food, weapons, tools, and other things were neatly stacked in there. But what caught my eye were _two _pretty sparkly blue lights!

"Another one! I guess they're some kind of key. I wonder what they're made of," I said, picking up a light by the handle resting on top of it.

Spyro grabbed the other light and we took off into the air. The weights made it really hard to fly, but we managed to get to the small dock in the river. The boat was held above the water on poles so it wouldn't float away. Spyro and I dropped the weights onto the pressure plates that apparently worked the docks and the boat fell into the water.

"Alright. Now how are we supposed to get this thing to Meadow?" I asked, hopping down onto the boat.

Spyro and Cynder hopped down with me, exchanging amused glances.

"What?" I asked suspiciously. They both grinned. _"What?"_

~~...~~

"I hate them. I hate them so much," I grumbled. They made me pull the boat while they just sat on it and held on.

"Having _fun _down there?" I spat over my shoulder.

"Yup!" was Spyro's highly amused reply. I grumbled to myself and gave a halfhearted flap.

I spied a chance to get my revenge while we rounded a bend in the river. As the boat came near the edge, I jerked towards it, causing the boat slam into it. Cynder lost her balance and Spyro fell into the water.

"Are you still having fun down there?" I sang.

Spyro shot up out of the water after me. I laughed and flew away. With two of us pulling the boat, we were easily fighting the current.

"What? Why did they put those there? !" I screamed, noticing two poles sticking out in the middle of the river. The lever that would raise the poles out of the water was on land, and surrounded by a group of gremlins.

"Oh, I am not dealing with this! Hang on, Cynder!" I called. I flew forward full speed. The boat collided with the poles, breaking them, and the boat continued on unscathed.

"Crystal!" Spyro yelled.

"What?"

"You just broke something!"

"Yes, and I enjoyed it immensely. Thanks for understanding." I grinned. Spyro sighed and shook his head.

It didn't take very long to make it to the waterfall cave. Meadow had managed to crawl to the mouth of it and was waiting for us. Cynder and Spyro went to meet him, while I stayed on the boat so it wouldn't get pulled away.

"You've come back. Thank you," Meadow said.

"Oh, yeah, it was really no problem at all. I did all the work..." Sparx said. I shot a glare at him. "Just kidding. I really did..." he whispered to Meadow.

"Hey! You three mind hurrying up? This thing is floating away!" I yelled, clinging onto the wood. The electricity In our collars began to crackle.

"Let's get you home," Spyro said to Meadow.

~~...~~

Meadow, using a thick stick we found for him, managed to climb off the raft and get back into the cheetah's town.

"Meadow!" a blue cheetah exclaimed. "You're wounded! How—"

"I will be fine, thanks to these three dragons," Meadow said. Sparx humphed and crossed his arms. Cynder smiled in amusement.

"Meadow, please forgive me," Red interjected, walking forward. "These dragons willingly sought to help you when I chose not to." He turned to Hunter, now untied. "I do not share your faith in these dragons, Hunter. But by putting you in chains, I committed an error."

"No kidding," I said under my breath.

"We all make mistakes," Hunter replied.

"Yes," said—fine, Chief Prowlus. "And I shall try to atone for mine if you will permit me." He took out a strange slip of paper from his pocket and handed it to Hunter. "Use the forbidden tunnel. It will lead directly into the Dragon City. If these dragons are indeed our last hope, then I bid you safe passage... and good luck."

"We could use your help," Hunter said.

I glanced at Chief Prowlus. He had a strange gleam in his eye.

"Very well. The invitation shall be left open," Hunter turned and led us away.

I didn't know this Chief Prowlus very well, but I know he has something in mind.

~~...~~

Hunter turned a strange stone on a door situated into the mountain. The door opened with a screech of stone on stone.

"Uh... Hunter, do we have to go this way?" Sparx asked, gazing into the dark cave that opened up before us.

"If we march quickly, we shall reach the Dragon City by daybreak," Hunter said, ignoring Sparx. I wanted to groan. A whole night of _walking._

"Yeah, yeah. Thanks for answering."

~~...~~

"I feel vibrations in the earth. We must be getting close," Hunter said.

"FINALLY!" I exclaimed. I was sick. Of. Walking!

"Finally," was Sparx's less enthusiastic response.

"I've never seen the Dragon City before," Spyro said. We had come to a tunnel made out of stone, with windows peeking out over the city. Spyro and I were gazing out of one.

"It was built long ago by the moles in honor of their friendship with the dragons. Before Malefor, dragons were quite revered," Hunter explained.

Cynder looked around quickly. "Shh!"

"I heard it too. Quickly!" Hunter said, running off.

"Oh, no," I said. Obviously, this meant something bad was going on in the city. But more importantly, I wouldn't get to sleep. We ran out of the tunnel and into the open air.

"It has begun," I glanced at Hunter quizzically, then turned to look out over the city. My breath caught in my throat.

Moles were running over the walls, carrying weapons. A fireball flew over them and slammed into a building. I could hear shouts drifting up from the other side of the city.

Almost half of Warfang was on fire. I could see many moles and some dragons scurrying about below us, stopping only to fight off gremlins. In addition, many dragons spanned the skies outside the walls. That was all I could observe before Hunter spoke.

"Stay close!" he yelled. I ran after him. And then it stopped me.

I fell over backwards, Spyro just barely managed not to fall backwards, and Cynder skidded to a stop as the building that had been hit by the fireball slammed down in front of us. If we hadn't stopped a moment earlier... I hopped to my feet.

"I'm alright! But you won't be able to get through this way! Go, find Ignitus!" Hunter yelled over the toppled building.

I was about to argue, but I realized it was better if we parted ways for now. Ignitus was likely to be in the air, anyhow, and Hunter couldn't follow us there.

"Okay. Good luck!" Spyro called.


	12. Trolled

**A/N:**

**HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SPYRO! *OCs jump out of hiding spots* *confetti descends from sky* Now, if you're wondering what makes the tenth Spyro's birthday, that was when the first game was released. I don't own Crystal, just Spyro. I mean—wait... that's the second time I've done that. If you don't like the story, I'll troll you... *wink***

* * *

I was about to take off when cries for help distracted me. I gazed towards three burning buildings. Each contained moles. The doors were blocked with fire, so they could only lean out of windows high off the ground and cry for help.

"The fires are too big for ice breath to do anything for!" I said. "And there's no way we could carry them down from there."

Just then, a bunch of flying gremlins swarmed from who-knows-where and surrounded us.

"Wonderful!" I said, burning all of them with a wave of fire. "Now, how do we put out the fire?"

We looked around for a few moments, before Spyro said, "Over there! It's some sort of water pump! But it's too far away from the buildings." The plan seemed doomed to failure. But, just then, I noticed a not-so-neatly-stacked stack of buckets laying in the corner of a building.

"We could use these?" I asked.

"Worth a try," Spyro replied.

The buckets were heavy; it was even more so when they were filled with water. But, we managed to repeatedly fill the buckets with water and throw it on the houses, and finally the fire died down.

The moles reluctantly managed to get out the houses. A few of the buildings were nearly about to collapse on themselves, so it looked like we got there just in time.

The moles approached us. One of them spoke. "Thank you... thank you... you-you saved our lives." He was shaken.

Sparx spoke almost immediately. "It's no big deal. Risking out lives, saving people, dodging danger..." I rolled my eyes. Spyro grinned at him. "...taking it to the man. It's an occupation."

"Look out! Siege engines! They're sending in their war machines!" a mole called over the wall. Of course, I had no idea what any of that was, but it didn't sound pleasant.

I stared at a mole piloting a cannon-like contraption. He blasted out a ball. Explosions and cries of pain were enough to signify that it had hit its mark.

Spyro, always the leader, spoke up. "Listen to me! Everyone who can still fight must go to the ramparts!"

"The rest of you run! Get under cover!" Cynder called out. The moles complied. Most of them ran for the ramparts, but the others, parents with children or those who were wounded, ran. Spyro, Cynder, and I ran towards the ramparts.

"Okay, putting out fires is one thing, but—Hey! Wait for me!" Sparx flew after us.

We ran up some long stairs, passing through a gate, and arriving on the wall of Warfang. Just narrowly I missed being hit with a flaming ball of fire. What wasn't being catapulted at me was smashing into the wall.

As I gazed out into the scene below me, I was filled with dismay. Out there were thousands... millions even... of the gremlins... and tall towers that blazed red fire and shot it out. Siege machine, I perceived.

Some of the flying dragon-like gremlins flew up to the wall. They were harboring normal walking gremlins on their back. Immediately they went after the cannon. The moles rushed quickly towards the gremlins, trying to fend them off, and we flew forward, knocking them away.

Of course, as soon as they were dead, more appeared. It was amazing how easy it was to kill them. Yet, they came in swarms, which made it not-so-easy.

I stopped and gazed out towards the battlefield. The situation looked bleak. There were five or six of these siege machines, and the battering ram which probably was to... well, batter the large, strong gates that lead into Warfang. Also, there were, as said, hundreds of thousands of gremlins. And the volcano, spurting off in the background, only made the situation look worse.

I sighed and threw a gremlin that had jumped on me over the wall. It shrieked as it fell. Finally, the gremlins stopped dropping.

The mole manning the catapult called out to us. "Quick, we have to reload!" A snap from a lever nearby signified this. We ran over to the lever, and Spyro and I pulled down on it. It was heavy. I was not sure how this reloaded the catapult, but so be it.

The siege tower was coming fast now. "It's going to shoot!" the mole called.

And it did. It shot out a flaming ball that smashed into the top part of the wall and nearly broke it in half. The top part was completely ripped off. The tower then rolled quickly over to the wall, and out of it hopped many, many gremlins.

The dire... seriousness of the situation astounded me. Always, in some way, there was some hidden joke, something for me to rebuke at with a sarcastic comment, just something that could cheer us all up... but here was nothing. It suddenly struck me how much older I was. I had grown so much ever since I left the Swamp. By surviving, I had become wiser, but I would always be the curious little nine-year-old at heart.

This revelation was bittersweet.

I sighed and ran over to the siege tower. Immediately I felt weakened and hopped back. It was another of those dark crystals, the ones that sapped my lifeforce.  
I felt myself weakening fast. I stumbled over to the crystal and hit it with the little strength I could muster. It was cracking slowly but not breaking. Cynder and Spyro joined me. Finally, it broke, and my strength returned to me. With a crash, the siege tower fell over. Panting heavily, I glanced up, only to see the dismal sight of more siege towers.

"We're not out of it yet! Just keep it up!" the mole manning the cannon called.

I suddenly wondered for a moment why there was only one cannon, and what in the world we would do if the enemy attacked from any other side. I sighed with relief, though, as I saw dragons flying over the walls to fight the siege towers before they arrived. The cause was not completely hopeless! With a sudden burst of strength I roasted a group of gremlins coming our way.

That's when the siege tower sent a shot at the cannon that sent the mole in it flying. He was obviously shaken, and when finally managed to get up and run, another shot almost squashed him. If he was left alone, he would either be squished, fall off the wall, or get a serious case of death by gremlin.

"Look! We need to get him back to the catapult!" Cynder exclaimed, running for him and bringing us with her.

"Alright, let's hurry! The tower is closing in!" Spyro yelled over the audibly increasing roar below.

We arrived just in time. Moles were not considerably strong species, although they are hardy, but a swarm of gremlins would surely kill an unarmed one. As it was, we managed to save the mole and began to lead him back to the catapult. I was watching the back, and Spyro and Cynder guarded the front, making an effective shield from the gremlins, as they could not come from the side.

As we frantically ran towards the cannon, I swear I caught sight of Terrador flying past us.

"Terrador!" I cried, but he either didn't hear me or ignored me, for he kept flying. Even so, I was very relieved at that point. Somehow, just knowing for sure there was a familiar face here gave me a little more courage.

Finally, the mole managed to get into the catapult. I heard the annoying snap noise again, and I knew it was time to reload. The lever was pulled, and another siege tower destroyed.

But another one arrived on the other side of the wall. I groaned and ran for it. The first priority was the strength-draining Spirit Gems. Somehow, they were connected to the towers and without them, the towers were nothing. I hated going near those things, much less touching them, but I had to.

The moles that had followed us up here were either dead or had left to defend other areas, as we and the cannon-mole were the only ones on the wall.

"I can't fire anymore!" the mole called over to us, just as Spyro landed a final blow on the crystal, which caused it to shatter. We ran over and reloaded, and another siege tower was taken out.

The battering ram was coming fast, along with two other towers. We couldn't let them it overtake us... but our forces were diminishing. The dragons and moles were outnumbered tenfold, at least.

"Follow me!" I heard a familiar voice yell. Out of the bushes below the wall hopped Chief Prowlus, followed by a large band of cheetahs.

"AVALAAAR!" they called, rushing out onto the battlefield. All at once I knew that I respected Chief Prowlus a lot more than I had felt before.

Two siege towers hit the wall at the same time, both releasing swarms of gremlins. I knew now how to destroy them easily, so it did not take too long to dispatch them both.

The mole shouted something at us, but it was hard to hear, as the roar had become deafening by now. I perceived it as that he wanted us to reload again, so back over we went.

The battering ram began to hit the gates, almost opening it all the way, when the mole in the cannon aimed down and shot it so that it exploded. The moles and dragons inside the walls cheered, but the happiness was soon dampened. A large green, giant... troll-like _thing _was running straight towards the gate.

"Close the gates! Close the gates! Don't let it in!" Sparx yelled. Needless to say, they let it in.

And, of all people, Hunter was suddenly there. He just barely managed to escape a punch from the troll. Spyro, Cynder, and I jumped over the wall and flapped into the air. The moles were closing the gate, and the lock system was being put back into place.

The lock worked like this. On either side of the door was a vat of lava. When the gates were closed, the lava seeped in to an indent in a wall. The two sides of the lava met at the middle in a large circular depression. The lava can't get through to the middle when the door is partly open, but if the lock is working correctly, it would be harder for enemies to get into the city.

Back to the situation at hand, Hunter was distracting the troll, but when it saw us, it completely ignored him. I breathed a blast of earth at the troll and flew away. The earth blast had little effect to stop his rampage, so I decided it was best to stay in the air.

I quickly came to the conclusion after that that staying in the air was _not _a good idea, when the troll jumped into the air and grabbed me. He slammed me into the ground repeatedly, me screaming all the time. Finally, Spyro discovered that fire worked best on the troll and managed to set it on fire, causing it let go of me. Cynder's poison also worked wonders to bring it down. The troll was stubborn, but finally, it died.

The great gates began to bang open from the weight of gremlins on it. They could just barely fit through, but they were coming.

"Okay! Alright, team! We've got to keep the gates closed. So go keep the gates closed. I'm gonna watch and make sure you're okay," Sparx said.

I rolled my eyes. "Great speech, Sparx. I feel driven to the cause."

We approached the gate and began to push on it. Slowly, we were overpowering the gremlins that were attempting to shove their way in. But a moment later I lost my footing and slipped. The gremlins began to overpower us again. Although I scurried to my feet and began pushing, it was too late.

Just then, I got an idea. I breathed electricity through the crack of the gate. The gremlins that had been hit howled with rage, and our party managed to slam the gates closed and hold it there long enough for the lock to seal. I breathed a sigh of relief and slumped on the ground.

"They're retreating!" a mole called from the top of the wall. Cheers rang out through the crowd. Bewildered, Spyro, Cynder, Sparx, and I flew to the wall and landed, where Hunter was standing, and looked over the edge. They _were _retreating! But, why? I felt compelled to let out a shriek of joy, but I quelled my euphoria and wondered to myself what had compelled the army to retreat.

"This is odd. Why are they retreating when they were so close to taking the city?" Cynder asked. I nodded in agreement.

"'Why are they retreating when they're so close...' Oh, who cares?" Sparx said mockingly.

"I feel it too. Something's... not right," Hunter said, gazing out over the wall, deep in thought.

"They're turning around! Look!" Spyro cried. The happiness that I had felt a moment ago cleared, and was replaced with a sense of dread.

Something was coming. Something big.

* * *

**A/N:**

**They're _trolling_ them... ha ha, okay. XD**

**Yes, I know the buckets aren't right beside the pool and you have to manually fill the pool with water. I wanted to make it easier. **


	13. The Destroyer

**A/N:**

**ORLYNAO NO U. But in all seriousness, Mister Anonymous Reviewer Without a Name, why am I lying? o.O Anyways, 'nother chap. I don't own Spyro, just Crystal, and if you don't like the story I might edit this to say something more interesting later.**

* * *

A chill ran up my spine. All at once, every last bit of hope was draining. A golem... _the _Golem was coming, all fiery and evil. Its legs were almost spider-like, and it was so big it towered over the whole city.

"Hush little baby, don't say a word... mama's gonna buy you... a big monster wants to kill me..." Sparx sobbed.

The Golem, with a growl, flawlessly slipped under the ground. Hunter stiffened and spun around, just as the Golem resurfaced inside the walls.

Cynder called something out, but I didn't hear it; I was too frightened and shocked. All I know is that the moles ran. I felt deserted and scared, and these feelings were heightened when the Golem started to topple house and slam his arm into the wall. They broke without any effort at all, and he used what was left of them to make a makeshift arm, as he had pulled his other one out back in the Catacombs. How were we to fight this?

Then, I heard a voice that almost calmed me down completely. Some of the fear was still there, but I felt reassured. They _were _still here, they really were, and there was still hope.

"Cyril, the city is burning. See what you can do about it! Volteer, try to distract its vision. Terrador, follow me! We'll attack it head-on!" It was Ignitus, giving out out orders to the other Guardians. He was in the air only a few yards away from us.

"You go and find shelter. Leave us to deal with this," Hunter said to us, running off before I could protest.

"What are we going to do? !" Cynder asked Spyro and I frantically.

"What do you mean, what are we going to—didn't you just hear Hunter?" Sparx asked.

"We're not leaving. We can stop this!" Spyro said.

"And I'm not leaving any of them out there to die!" I exclaimed indignantly. Almost as if on cue, some gremlins sprang out from behind a wall. Spyro shot ice shards at them, mostly missing because of the distance between us and them, but killing three of it.

I groaned and rolled my eyes, hitting the gremlins Spyro missed spot-on. "Let's go!" I yelled, hopping up onto a ramp and going up.

"Spyro! This way, quickly!" Cyril, who was doing as Ignitus instructed, said when he noticed us.

We ignored him and continued to run up the ramp. I wasn't sure where we were going, but instinct told me it was up _there. _

"Or ignore me at your own peril. Whatever."

We all came to a sudden halt when we saw the Golem's tail perilously coming down right where we were standing. Cyril jumped in quickly, breathing ice on the tail and causing it to slow. I nodded thanks and ran. Just as we got off the ramp, the tail smashed down. I looked back, Cyril was gone, and I had a bad feeling that it hit him.

"Is everyone alright?" Spyro asked, coming to a halt.

"No! I'm not alright! Did you see what just happened to Cyril? !" Sparx yelled.

"He'll be alright. Come on, we have to move!" Cynder said.

We finally reached the top of the building. Volteer spotted us and called out. "Hold on! I'll get you out of there."

I shook my head, but he was gone, off to do what Ignitus told him to do. Why did everybody think we couldn't handle ourselves?

I'll save you the repetitive gremlin-fighting and skip to the point where Volteer made the debris that was blocking our way out explode.

"Volteer!" Spyro called, running up the stairs, us following him. I suddenly had a really bad feeling—that's when a building fell, landing just where I was a moment ago. I paused, freaked out, before running again, coughing from the dust that was kicked up.

"It's heading for the upper part of the city!" Cynder exclaimed.

"The inhabitants are all sheltered there. We can't let it get any further!" Spyro replied.

Volteer had gone again when the building fell, I saw him flying just behind the area we were at now.

The gang headed into some sort of building, not completely enclosed, with pillars holding it up. I jumped when the Golem's hand reached up from below and broke the pillars. It suddenly climbed up onto the building. I jumped back just as it breathed fire into the room, then proceeded to climb up higher. We flew up above to meet it.

It slammed its hand into the room often—when it did this, Cynder blew it against the wall with wind and Spyro and I sent ice shards at it, pinning it there. After that, we attacked the hand physically, destroying the dark Spirit Gems that were covered on it. This seemed to be very effective. But it wasn't _killing _him, and that's what worried me.

"Follow me! I have an idea!" I yelled to Spyro and Cynder. I flew around to the neck, the vital area, and sure enough there was a dark gem there.

"Attack the neck! It's the weakest spot!" I hit the crystal attached to its neck vigorously. That _must _kill it. When the gem exploded and shattered, the Golem screeched and held on to the building weakly, losing consciousness.

"Look out!" I heard someone call, and in that instant I recognized Terrador, who curled into a ball and went flying for the Golem. I quickly got out of the way, and Terrador burst straight through the Golem.

He was readying for another attack when the Golem came back into consciousness, somehow still alive, and breathed fire. Terrador immediately backed off, but he could not get away quickly enough and fell out of the sky. I winced.

I didn't understand how the Golem could still be alive. We had just attacked the dark Spirit Gems on its neck! Perhaps there was somewhere else more vulnerable. We still did out wind-ice-melee tactic, but I wasn't sure how long I could keep it up. There were no Spirit Gems in sight, the Golem had managed to hit me, and I was nearly out of energy.

The Golem, once we had weakened it sufficiently, seemed to pass out, but still hung on to the building. I ran up to the next flight of the broken building, clinging to the hope that this creature ran on dark crystals and there would be more to destroy. Sure enough, there was another crystal on the other side of its neck, and we proceeded to attack it.

The Golem, coming back to consciousness, climbed up even higher, and we were forced to take to the air and get on top of the building, where it waited for us.

And here came Ignitus, breathing fire onto the Golem. The fire hit his neck and head, and I could tell it was getting weaker.

Ignitus flew back behind the Golem and was diving in for another attack, but the Golem lashed out his arm before he could stop flying. I winced again as they made contact, and Ignitus was sent flying from the blow. He hit a building, cracking its wall, and disappeared as he fell again.

"It's up to us. If we don't stop it now, it will destroy everything," Spyro said, hitting the truth. The frightened, deserted feeling came back.

"Alright, I'm with you," said Cynder. I nodded.

"Why, why do I keep going along with this?" Sparx wondered aloud.

The Golem slammed its fists onto the ground, and we took the opportunity to attack them. This went on for a while. Then, the Golem left its hand exposed for too long. We hopped onto it. Immediately, it tried to shake us off, but we held on. Our goal was to go for the head and destroy the crystals there. That would surely kill it.

I saw it coming before it happened. We were heading for the wall... the Golem was going to slam us into it! Spyro and I were slow, but Cynder was fast and had tugged on the collar-line, pulling us out of what might have well turned us into pancakes.

We ran up its arm while it was distracted and jumped onto its head. We hung on, and each of us taking one of the three crystals. We attacked them savagely, shattering them, somehow managing to hold on while the Golem swung its head about wildly.

The Golem was finally silent for a moment, and we took that chance to _jump. _As soon as we landed, it screeched loudly, and finally, let go and fell. I knew that this time it was dead.

I gazed over the edge, about ready to collapse. It was dead... it was really, really dead, and we killed it! We had killed a golem! I could hear my heart pounding in my head, feel the adrenaline pumping through my veins. I couldn't help but laugh and shake my head in disbelief.

"Ignitus..." Spyro said, turning. I breathed a sigh of relief. I was almost sure that the Golem had killed him, but he looked relatively uninjured. For that, I was most definitely glad.

Ignitus landed on the roof and we approached him. "Young dragons, you never cease to amaze me," he said.

"We never lost hope that you would return," Terrador said, landing behind us. "Ignitus made sure of that."

"I should have come back sooner. I let you all down," Spyro said.

"We," I firmly corrected.

"But that won't happen again," he continued.

"Spyro, Crystal, you've done more than anyone could expect of a dragon your age," Ignitus said. "What matters now is that you're here, and what's more, you've returned with your companions."

"Well, it's not like I've had really much of a choice in the matter," Cynder said, as if she would have gone somewhere else _had _she had a choice in the matter. "Seeing as how we're stuck together."

The necklaces flashed into view. I gazed down at mine with dismay. Although I had gotten used to it by now, I still didn't like the thought of being stuck to someone... especially not permanently.

"Interesting. This device is foreign to me," Ignitus murmured. "Mason, what do you make of this?" he asked one of the two moles approaching us.

The mole walked up to Cynder and tried to touch the necklace, but his paw went through it. "Never have I seen such a thing. It has the mark of evil," Mason said.

"Likely crafted by Malefor himself," Ignitus said. I grimaced. "I fear we shall not be able to remove it."

"What? ! But there has to be a way!" Cynder exclaimed.

"Yeah! We can't stay attached together for the rest of our lives!" Not that Spyro and Cynder were unlikeable or anything, but I couldn't even comprehend never even being able to go anywhere alone ever again, always followed about by someone else. There had to be a way out of the collars!

"How can we fight back if we're made to fight like this?" Spyro asked, as bewildered as I was.

"The three of you have done well to get this far, despite this," Ignitus said. "Do not view this chain as a hindrance, but allow it to be a reminder of the bond you three share."

I glanced at Spyro and Cynder, who were gazing at each other. I was still skeptic about this, but if Ignitus said so...

"Your destinies are now intertwined, and that thought is a hopeful one."

I glanced at Cynder again. I was suddenly _very _suspicious about something... but I wasn't sure quite what it was. I resolved to keep my eye on the both her and Spyro.

~~...~~

"Momentum has swung to our side, Ignitus," Terrador said. He was shrouded in the darkness of the night that had fallen. "Perhaps this victory will mark a turning point in this war."

I, as of now, had no idea where we were going. I wanted to ask, but I decided that now was not the time and kept silent.

"I'd like to believe that," Ignitus replied. He didn't sound too optimistic.

I almost shrieked but instead quickly stepped behind Spyro,when something blasted out of the ground... what was it? A hologram, like the one the Chronicler had contacted us from, shooting out of a Spirit Gem. It looked like an ethereal dragon was within the hologram, but I couldn't make whoever it was out. Cynder stiffened and shrank back beside me.

"Citizens of Warfang... congratulations. You shall be the first to witness the resurrection of the Destroyer and the end of the world..." the dragon said. His voice was distorted and his piercing eyes, yellow and cat-like, seemed to pierce my soul.

Then I realized. Those were the eyes that had been haunting me ever since I entered Convexity.

"Malefor..." Ignitus said, confirming my fears.

At that moment, the infamous volcano went off, spewing lava into the air. Even though we were far away, the light still illuminated the front of us.

"By our ancestors... what is that?" Ignitus asked.

Something was coming out of the volcano, something as black as the night, but that glowed with an inner red light.

"The Destroyer has commenced its journey to form the ring of annihilation. At the end of its journey, the Belt of Fire will spread across the surface of this world in a torrent of fire and ash. There will be no escape!" Malefor exclaimed, before his hologram faded away.

"The Destroyer? But that's impossible!" Terrador said.

"Ignitus! I don't understand!" Spyro exclaimed.

"Nor do I. The ancients believe that this creature brings about the birth of a new world..."

"See! That sounds like a good thing!" Sparx said, flying up beside Ignitus.

"...By issuing its destruction."

"Oh."

"The beast moves too quickly. We can't possibly catch up with it. To set out in pursuit would be useless," Terrador said.

"Then we shall wait for it to come back, and intercept it before it completes its circle," Ignitus replied. "We must pass underground if we are to possess the element of surprise. Besides, it is our only hope of getting into position in time without allowing Malefor to know the city has been left unguarded."


	14. Puzzle

**A/N:**

**Oh, no. I'm a day late. I should be executed for how late I am. /sarcasm My head hurts. It really, really does. But if I don't write, people will be annoyed or irritated or bored. So have fun reading the chapter derived from my very pounding forehead. Whoo-pee. I don't own Spyro. I only own Crystal. And if you don't like the story, I'll give you a headache.**

* * *

"These doors were built as an exit for our city, not for going back in. They have to be opened from the inside," Mason explained, staring up at the doors.

"Spyro, Cynder, Crystal. We will assemble the troops at the main gates. We're counting on you to get them open," Terrador said. I nodded.

"But you must hurry. Time is against us," Ignitus said.

~~...~~

"So what do you suppose we do with these things?" I asked, peering at the odd dragon statues.

"I don't know. Let's look around," Spyro replied.

We took to the air, heading for another piece of land. The ruins of Warfang were... well, ruined. Vast gaps existed between floors and no trace of buildings seemed to be left. I wondered vaguely how the land formed over what once must have been the first Warfang. And what happened to make it nothing more than ruins. It seemed that everybody just pretended that there was never anything down here and they just rebuilt on the surface as if nothing had ever happened.

Or perhaps it was something different. Like a secret place that nobody was supposed to know about.

"Spyro, Crystal, look at this..." Cynder's hushed tone drew my attention and I looked where she looked. It was some sort of picture or mural, on it, a purple dragon, two other dragons, a mole, and a cheetah.

"Whoa! Is that supposed to be one of you?" Sparx asked bluntly. "They're all worshipping you!"

"That isn't me or Crystal. It's Malefor," Spyro said solemnly. "Look at this place. The ancestors must have trained him here once."

"They had such high hopes," I interjected sadly, gazing at the ceiling.

After a thorough looking-through of the area and finding nothing, we headed back over to the statues.

"I don't get it. How do we open these things?" I asked, going up and gazing into one of the statue's eyes as if staring it down would make it open.

"I don't know. Maybe if we—" That's when it caught my eye. There was an inscription on the base. "Av latta shanta anyammis, Mafre," I read.

"What?" Spyro asked, staring at me as if I had grown a second head.

"That's what it says. But I can barely read it. All I can make out is 'light come frost'."

"That doesn't make very much sense," Spyro said.

"Let me read that," Cynder said. I stepped aside.

"It says, 'From light comes life', then it says 'Frost.'"

"What do the others say?" I asked.

Cynder read them all. They said:

Av mora, Belle agea (Of wood, Thunderous wisdom)

Mala Kynd, Goria varla va cey (High sky, Obscured stars in shadow)

Nagaia Pellan (Deathly outsider)

Along with above, one read 'Racuvar', which meant 'Cast down', but the rest was scratched out.

"But what is all this supposed to mean?" Spyro asked, when Cynder was done.

"I think it's a puzzle. You see, it's intended for either many dragons—or a dragon who can breathe many elements. The first puzzle must mean fire and frost must be breathed on it in a certain order and within a short time," Cynder said. Spyro and I exchanged glances and both breathed the respective elements onto the statue. Sure enough, its eyes lit up in a manner that reminded me of me and Spyro's first trek through the temple.

"Alright. 'Obscured stars in shadow' most likely means shadow, but what about 'high sky'?" I asked.

"Well, it might mean either electricity or wind. And 'Thunderous wisdom' is most likely electricity, so it must be wind," Spyro offered.

Cynder breathed first shadow then wind on the statue. Its eyes lit up. After that, 'Of wood' and 'Thunderous wisdom' were obvious as earth and electricity, so Spyro and I breathed that element onto the statue.

"Now, we just have to figure out what 'Deathly outsider' and 'Cast down' means..." I said, rather confused. "Of course it would be poison and fear, but which one is which? They both come from the outside. And cast down _what?"_

We pondered for a minute.

"Maybe," said Spyro, "poison is the deathly outsider? Since it works its way in from the outside?"

Cynder breathed poison then fear onto the dragon and sure enough its eyes lit up.

I gave a sigh of both relief and restlessness when the gates opened and all of the Guardians, along with a few other dragons, cheetahs, and moles walked through.

"Oh joy. Another long walk," I muttered to myself, falling back beside Spyro and Ignitus. I didn't really say it to mean anything, though. I didn't feel the sarcasm at all.

I was left to my thoughts as we trodded along. The whole of the small army was mostly hushed and silent, and I sensed uneasiness. I was uneasy myself. About... everything. I glanced at Spyro and he glanced back. We were both thinking the same thing.

"We are getting closer..." Ignitus' murmur drew me out of my thoughts. I glanced at him, then back to Spyro again. "I know what you are thinking, Spyro and Crystal. Have no worry, young dragons. We'll make it," Ignitus said after a moment.

I was filled with dread then. I wasn't sure if we would make it. And even if they made it, would Spyro and I? What if the same thing happened to us that happened to Malefor?

"_But unlike you, I have not forgotten what they said Malefor was like when he was young..."_

What Chief Prowlus was implying here could go either way. Did he mean when Malefor was a young adult, when he was evil? Or was he implying that Malefor had once been like me, like Spyro... But then the thirst for power consumed him.

"I don't understand... Malefor is about to destroy everything. But you seem so calm," Spyro said. I noted this fact. He was calm and it seemed strange to be, especially since there was next to no hope.

"I don't imagine Malefor would expend all this effort if he did not feel threatened," Ignitus replied.

"But why should he?" Spyro asked. I still remained silent.

"Throughout our history there has only been known to have been three purple dragons. Like Malefor, your powers go far beyond what you might imagine. He knows this. Malefor could have accomplished anything, but instead he chose evil and the world has been spiraling into chaos ever since. Your existence is nature's way of balancing itself."

"The ancestors thought Malefor was going to be different. They believed in him. And look what happened."

"Malefor draws his powers from destruction. Destruction is the only way he knows, Spyro."

"Why should I be any different?"

"What if the same thing happens to us?" I asked, finally speaking.

"Because I know you. And your heart would not allow it. Because I believe you are destined for great things, to bring about a new age... an age of peace... And I do not see what role destruction will have in that age," Ignitus said. I felt reassured. Maybe Ignitus was right.

Finally, we came into the light of the day, onto a small cliff that the others spread out upon in a fan-like formation. Below us was a gorge-like canyon filled with trickling water, and to right was a dam with the statue of a dragon on the top. Across the gorge was a forest. The most notable feature, though, was the Destroyer in the distance.

"Here we are," Ignitus said.

I gazed out over the forest. Far away, the Destroyer did not look like too much of a threat, and Sparx seemed to notice this.

"Whoa... gotcha! Errr... gotcha gotcha! P-taaw... Take that! Squishy squishy!" Sparx was flicking the air where the Destoyer would be from his point of view.

"Oh, keep it up, Sparx. I think it's working," Cynder said sarcastically. I was snickering before but Cynder's comment almost made me go into a fit of laughter.

"Sparx, cut it out. Now's not the time," Spyro said.

"You're no fun," I grumbled.

"It's _never _a good time," Sparx said, crossing his arms.

The Destroyer was moving fast. "How long until it crosses the belt of fire?" Terrador asked.

"We might have until midday... maybe less at that speed," Ignitus replied.

Cynder suddenly got a strange look on her face. "Spyro... how deep do you think that canyon is?" she asked.

"I don't know... What are you getting at?" Spyro asked.

We both realized at the same time what, exactly, she was getting at. We shot a bewildered glance at the dam behind where Sparx was hovering.

Sparx blinked a few times then looked at us. "What? What are you looking at? Do I have something... something on my teeth?" he asked. When we didn't reply he glanced behind him.

"Cynder, you're a genius!" Spyro and I exclaimed at the same time.

"I have my moments," Cynder replied with a smile.

"Ignitus, can you stall it long enough to allow us to open the flood gates? If we fill up the canyon with water, it may slow it down enough to give us a fighting chance!" Spyro said quickly, excited. The dark clouds had slightly parted. There was a ray of hope.

"That may work..." Terrador said.

Ignitus nodded and spoke loudly, addressing the small war party. "Listen to me! We must prevent that monster from escaping the canyon no matter the cost! Every moment counts!"

"You heard the dragon! Let's move!" Terrador exclaimed, leading the non-fliers down a natural rock-ramp.

"We will do all we can to give you time. The rest is up to you," Ignitus said to us.

"'The rest is up to you.'. Pfft. No pressure or anything," Sparx said, rolling his eyes.

"Sparx, do you really need to—" I was interrupted by nearly being dragged off the cliff by Spyro and Cynder, who had flown off. "Wait for me!" I yelled, flapping after.

"Let's hope this is enough..." Ignitus said to himself.

* * *

**A/N:**

**Credit to Bethesda for the Ayleid language. Yep, that's what it was. Now I wanna write an Oblivion fic. XD Anyway, hope ya like it. And... oh, Sparx... XD**


	15. Let's Blow This Dam Thing Up!

**A/N:**

***stilted* Oh my. Why is it so dark in here? I should probably turn on the lights and see what is going on. **

***all OCs jump out of hiding places* Happy first year on FanFiction!**

**Oh my god, oh my god. I did not expect this to happen at all. Anyway, yup, this day is my first year on fanfiction! Hoorayza! I only own Crystal, and I do not own Spyro. If you don't like the story, don't read it. The 'Let's blow this dam-thing up' scene belongs to GoldenGriffiness. She's AWESOME! Aaaand... this is her last quote for me. Aww. :(**

* * *

We glided down over the sparse water. I ran a paw through it and flew upwards again.

"Spyro, look out!" Cynder called.

I glanced back down. Four of the wavey gremlins were flying towards Spyro. Cynder breathed a ball of poison that hit its mark and sent one falling into the water, shrieking. Spyro electrocuted one and flew away, and I sent a few ice shards towards the last.

We soon found... something. It was obviously connected to the dam, so that was good. Whatever it was, it was wide, inserted partly into the wall, and was locked in place by two atone restraints. Before it was a pressure plate with a depression in it, and I knew immediately what was supposed to go in it.

"We need to find one of those sparkle-things again," I said, taking to the air. It did not take long to find one. It was on a platform just above and to the left of the long thing.

"They really need to enhance security around here. Some random crazy person could blow up the dam if they really wanted to," I said, more to myself than to Spyro, as I grabbed the orb and flew back over to the contraption. When I placed it in the hollow, the restraints that were holding the wide thing in place released.

"Okay, I think we need to pull it out. Spyro, you grab onto that plate on the front of it. Me and Cyn will pull," I said.

"Cyn? Do you have to call me that?" Cynder asked with amusement, raising an eyeridge.

I grinned and flew forward. The thing, whatever it was, was pulled out easily. When it stopped, water began to seep out over the top of the wall and the water level rose.

We searched around some more light balls and crazy contraptions and found another sparkle-light in an alcove. Cynder picked it up and we flew back to the other wide thing just beside the one we just used to release the water.

More pulling—as well as more gremlin bashing—and more water flooded over. This was actually pretty easy.

The dam was now quite flooded, but Cynder gazed over the edge and shook her head. "It's not enough," she said.

"What else can we do?" Spyro asked quizzically. That was the last water releaser.

Cynder glanced up at the top of the dam. "We have to let all the water out. All at once."

"No, no. Here's what we do. We have to let _all _the water out, _all _at once," Sparx exclaimed. I shook my head and rolled my eyes. "You with me? Let's blow this dam-thing up! I am a genius."

"Are you incapable of shutting up for more than five minutes?" I asked, shaking my head at Sparx's stupid joke. "Well?"

"Hey, I have the right to remain silent!" Sparx retorted.

"Yeah, you do..." I began, looking at Cynder and grinning.

"What you lack is the capacity," she finished. We smacked our tailblades together, grinning. Sparx managed to suppress himself into a silent, sulking state. Satisfied, I took to the air to break the dam.

"Uh-oh! Look, reinforcements!" Cynder said, gazing up at the dam where flying gremlins were beginning to gather.

"I guess they know what we're up to. We better move!" Spyro replied, glaring at me for antagonizing Sparx.

"Stupid things..." I grumbled, winging up to them. I breathed fire, easily burning them to crisps. I flew to the right of the dragon head statue and noticed another water-pressure thing there. This one, though, didn't need any orbs.

The usual grab-on-pull-out-ing commenced, us only being interrupted by gremlins a few times. After that, everything was oddly still. I waited, wondering if it had even worked.

Then, before I knew what was happening, the dragon statue was gone, replaced by a torrent of water, and I was in the air flying for my life against the tidal wave that surged for us. My rising scream was lost in the deafening sound of the crashing waves.

"Everyone! Take cover!" I heard Ignitus yell, and all dragons immediately flew into the air. All the others ran up onto higher ground.

The Destroyer was caught in the wave, luckily, and the steam that rose from his body was in amazing amounts, almost as thick as smoke. Even more luckily, Spyro had thought to fly _up _and saved us from certain death. As the Destroyer struggled, one leg actually broke off, rendering him immobile.

"Now's our chance! Attack the Destroyer!" Terrador yelled. We heeded his command and flew down. Here was our hope. We would win!

* * *

**A/N:**

**Agh, extremely short. Sorry.**

**Anyway, yep, that was Golden's last quote. Gee, only took me a year to use them all... -_-**


	16. Destroy the Destroyer!

**A/N:**

"**Why is it so dark in... waaaaiiit a second..." Crystal said.**

"**She's onto us!" TLOSpyrogirl said to Spyro in an audible whisper. **

***TLOSpyrogirl and all OCs jump out of hiding places* Happy birthday, Crystal!**

**Really, it technically isn't her birthday, because I thought of her long before a year ago—but October 1st is the first time I wrote about her, so happy first birthday to Crystal, and happy anniversary The Legend of Crystal.**

* * *

I flapped into the air. How were we to kill this thing? It seemed impossible. It was made out of rock, and even with earth, it would take days to wear this thing's body down... we only had a few minutes.

Then, the pulsing and accompanied weakness as I drew close to a crystal reminded me. The dark Spirit Gems! Of course! Destroying them would surely weaken it, if not kill it!

I flew over to the crystal situated on the Destroyer's leg. The purple thing pulsed and radiated its dark magic, so I quickly destroyed it, relaying my plan to Spyro and Cynder as I did.

"It's a good idea," Cynder said, taking to the air when she spotted another crystal, "but this thing could have a hundred dark Spirit Gems on it. What if we can't destroy them all in time?"

"We have to try," I replied, landing on a platform jutting out from the Destroyer's other leg and attacking the crystal.

I nearly fell off the edge when a gremlin rammed into me. "Where are they coming from?" I asked in disbelief, retaliating by pushing it off the edge. "I mean, when did they climb on?" I sighed and took to the air.

The next crystal was situated around the waist of the Destroyer's body, and was easily dispatched. All this flying and fighting was beginning to exhaust me. Not to mention the lava streaming down the Destroyer was making me hot. I sighed and ignored my body which yelled at me to rest and continued on.

The next few crystals around the lower body were easily found. We simply flew about, attacking them, and they were destroyed easily. I landed on one of the platforms, stopping for a brief rest and to refill my elemental strength with green Spirit Gems. I flamed a few gremlins and took to the air again.

After many more Spirit-Gem-destroying adventures later, we finally made it to the top of the Destroyer's body. It had been shaking vigorously before, trying to escape its watery prison, but it wasn't noticeable at the bottom and middle. The top... that was a different story.

The top of the Destroyer was like a town, with many ruined building scattered about, smashed together in the 'landscape'. There were even stone sidewalks. It highly resembled Warfang's architecture, which made me wonder how in the world that got up here. But I ignored that thought in favor of a more dire one.

"I am not enjoying myself!" I yelled, stumbling sideways as the Destroyer threw his body left and right. I clung onto a building and held on as Spyro and Cynder tumbled about. After a few minutes, we were able to get our footing, even as the Destroyer fought his watery chains.

"Okay... doing good, doing good..." I said slowly as I stumbled along towards a dark Spirit Gem. "Doing bad, doing bad, doing bad!" I cried quickly as I lost my footing and tumbled over the edge, just barely managing to grab onto it. When the Destroyer finally stopped shaking wildly in an attempt to get away, I took to the air and flew over to the dark gem, destroying it. This time, though, it broke something off. A piece of rock. Behind the rock was a tunnel. I gazed inside.

"We can't stop it from out here... but maybe..." Spyro said thoughtfully.

"Whoa, wait, wait-wait-wait! You're not thinking about going _in_ there, are you? !" Sparx exclaimed before I could complain.

"Come on, Sparx, we're going to need you to lead the way," Spyro said.

"Oh, come on, you know I've got your back, I'm just complaining. Let's go!" Sparx exclaimed.

The tunnel lead out to... a mouth. Definitely a mouth; it had _teeth _and a throat.

"Wait, so you want that thing to _eat us?" _I shouted as Spyro led us down the rocky throat. "Fine. Let's give it indigestion, then!" I sped past them into the thing's throat. Spyro and Cynder only had a moment to look at each other in disbelief before they were yanked after me. Sparx hid his face in his hands before flying after.

"Let's go!" Spyro called. I nearly rammed into a stalactite pillar-like thing that apparently held up this thing's stomach and just barely dodged two more. I glanced back at Spyro and Cynder. They were fine. And Sparx, now leading the way, didn't manage to hit anything.

I yelled as we flew quickly through a cave and into a room filled with lava. Probably the closest to stomach acid possible, not that the Destroyer would have time to eat.

Wee were going too fast, I knew. I nearly slammed into the wall many times. But I couldn't stop flying. Something was pushing me on. To my relief, we emerged outside of the lava room, but we couldn't even slow down here, as a wind tunnel had formed.

"That must be it's heart," Spyro yelled.

"Well," I shouted, nearly hysterically because of the heat, "let's break it!"

"And how do you plan to do that?" asked the ever-sarcastic Cynder.

"The usual way!" I rammed into the giant crystal. "These things give me a bad name!"

The dark crystal was _tough. _Even with all three of us attacking it, and Sparx shouting out prompts, it took a long time to break. I was, by now, about to faint from the heat. Not to mention the crystal was being held in place by a spurt of lava, so it took some tricky dodging not have my scales burned off. Finally, though, it exploded.

"Oh, _finally!" _I exclaimed, flying through another tunnel that opened, thinking it would lead me out.

"Wait... there's _two? !" _I groaned at the sight of yet another large heart and repeated the process.

"Please let this lead out, please let this lead out... oh, come on! This is just unfair!" I yelled, when we flew through another passageway after breaking the other heart and found yet another one._"Nothing _has three hearts. _Nothing." _

When we broke this heart, another beating dark crystal was shown to be underneath it. Obviously, we broke it.

"Let's get outta here!" Spyro exclaimed once we were done.

"You don't need to tell me more than once!" I replied, dodging an explosion and, well, getting out of there.

I cringed as I felt the heat of lava approaching behind me. "Oh, no... tell me not to look back, Spyro, or I will look back and freak out!" I squeaked.

"Don't look back!" Spyro, Sparx, and Cynder exclaimed together.

I glared at them. "Very funny."

"Go, go, go!" Spyro yelled, glancing back. I saw the fear in his eyes.

"Ohh, we're going to die, aren't we? I don't wanna die! I'm only nine in mind and twelve in body! I'm too young to die!" I whined , flying as fast as I could. I yanked at my collar and pulled Cynder forward.

"Use your wind element to fly faster, Cynder!" I yelled back at her, cringing at the lava I saw coming towards us.

"There's no wind!"

"Then _make _some!"

"You can't just go around _making _wind, there has to _be _wind to _make _wind!"

"...What? !"

"You have... oh, never mind!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAH!" I screamed as I flew out of the Destroyer's mouth towards the cheering cheetahs, moles, and dragons, feeling the imminent explosion scorch my tail, but luckily nothing else. Cynder, apparently, managed to make some of her oh-so-elusive wind and caught up with us.

I skidded onto the rock where Ignitus was, lost my balance, and caught it again before I rolled over. I shook my head. I was now exhausted. I hoped that since the Destroyer would be... destroyed, I would be able to get a nap in, and possibly some food. I hadn't eaten in about a day, since we defeated the Golem at Warfang. Yes, that was a short time, but the recent events depleted me.

"For all your subtleties, young dragons, you certainly know how to triumph with a flair," Ignitus said to us.

I wasn't sure exactly what that meant, but I took it as a compliment and smiled weakly.

"What's happening to it?" Spyro asked, glancing at the Destroyer, who sat in silence, not moving.

_What do you think? It's dead, _I thought to Spyro. Realizing it didn't go through, I thought it harder.

Spyro blinked and glanced at me. I suddenly realized how long it had been since we had thought-talked to each other. This suddenly worried me.

"I... I don't know. It's most peculiar..." Ignitus replied, but his sentence was cut off. The Destroyer's eyes opened, this time they glowed purple instead of red, and it grabbed onto land.

"No... this can't be..." Ignitus said in disbelief, his voice weakening. The Destroyer was getting up and reaching for the Belt of Fire. When its hand touched the fire, there was an explosion of light. Now renewed, it managed to climb onto the land.

"Ignitus... what do we do?" Spyro asked.

I shook my head and sat down. "Nothing. There's nothing we can do," I muttered to myself.

"There is no more that can be done," Ignitus said, pretty much agreeing with me. I sighed and gazed up at the sky. Blue, with golden clouds. It would be red soon, I knew it.

"Listen to me," Ignitus addressed the others after a few moments of silence. He sounded hopeless... everything was hopeless... "Not much time is left. Everyone must get to shelter."

"What about the outlying populations?" Cynder asked.

"And there are countless still inside Dragon City! They need to be warned!" Spyro said.

I continued gazing upwards. I didn't know what I would see in the clouds. Hope? Probably not. There was no hope left. There was nothing. Nothing but useless clouds.

"The Underground City..." Spyro thought it the same time as I did, but I knew he would say it anyway, so I shifted my gaze to the ground. Nothing was there either. "Ignitus, there are endless caves down there! We saw them! We can lead them there!"

_Lead them to their deaths... _I thought to myself. Even under there, we could not escape it. The fire would consume everything.

"No. I need you, Cynder, and Crystal here with me," Ignitus said. I looked up. Where were we going? "Hunter, send your falcons to the outlying regions and tell them to get beneath the surface, as deep as they can. Go! All of you!" Ignitus instructed. The others ran off.

"I know you're up to something, Ignitus. I've known you for too long..." Terrador said.

Ignitus thought for a moment. "Go to the others, Terrador. There will be panic and disorder. A strong leader will be needed. I'll find my way back once I get Spyro, Cynder, and Crystal through the Belt of Fire." Terrador nodded and took off towards Warfang.

Going through the Belt of Fire...to...fight Malefor. Well, that sounded like a plan, actually. My eyes lit up again, the deadness in them dispelling, if only for the time being. If I was going to die, I might as well die doing what I do best.

Fighting.

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**A/N:**

**...I wanted to spare Crystal, since it's her birthday.**


	17. Grief and Pain

**A/N:**

**Hey, hey, hey! I didn't forget to credit you last time, Gold, I just credited you in Spanish. Anyway, I meant to, but I forgot. The just-entering-the-throat and first destroy-the-heart scene belongs to Golden, and I am out of quotes again. XD By the way, can I borrow a bar of soap, please? I ran out. Don't... don't ask. I don't own Spyro, just Crystal, if you don't like the story, too bad.**

* * *

"We have to confront Malefor, don't we?" I stared at Spyro like he way crazy after that question. Of course! Why not? We stay, we die; we go, we die. We might as well _go _and die fighting rather than die huddled in a corner.

"I see no other way. The Belt is weakened, and this may be our only chance to break through," Ignitus replied.

"Yeah, if we aren't incinerated first," Cynder said sarcastically. I glanced at the Belt. She was right; that did not look weakened at all.

"Can't we just fly _over _it?" I whimpered.

"That'd take too long, Crystal. We need to go _through _it," Spyro told me.

"Oh, come on! That doesn't sound so bad! We've been through worse... right?" Sparx asked.

The thought came immediately and I shoved it away. _No. _ I wouldn't leave him behind.

"Sparx..." Spyro began, and I looked away. "You can't come with us."

No, no, no. We couldn't leave him behind. What would I do without Sparx?

"What? But I always go with you..." Sparx sounded hurt and confused. It wasn't fair.

But I couldn't be so selfish... if we brought him with us he would get killed... and I couldn't let that happen.

"Sparx, I—_we're_ worried that you wouldn't... live...if we took you with us..." I didn't know how to word it correctly. How could I tell him that we were going to die for certain and that I didn't want him to see that? How could I say that it was better if he stayed behind?

"They're right. You wouldn't survive in there," Ignitus said.

"You need to make sure the other reach the Underground City in time. You've been there before. You can guide them," Spyro said. He sounded uncertain... he felt just as bad as I did.

I didn't want to leave Sparx behind... Sparx, although he did get frightened sometimes, always led us... metaphorically as well as literally. I didn't know what I was going to do without his sarcastic comments and just... his Sparx-ness accompanying me. How do I explain it? He's always been there. The only time he's ever left my or Spyro's side was for an hour at the most, when we first set out on this journey. And even then, I knew he would follow. I don't know how, but I just _knew. _This time, though, he couldn't follow us... I wanted him there, but I didn't want him to die just for my selfish reason of wanting to keep him.

"It's important, Sparx," Cynder said.

"But you need me," Sparx said, clinging to a last thread of hope. That was true. It was too true.

"Right now there are others that need you more," Spyro said sadly.

Sparx paused, then with a dejected sigh, he turned to Cynder. "Cynder, you have to promise me you will look after them. We... we've been through a lot together."

"I promise," Cynder said.

This was making me feel worse. I knew I was going to die, at one point or another, but soon. For Sparx's sake if not my own, I didn't want that to happen, but it just seemed inevitable. I glanced at Spyro sadly.

Sparx flew towards the entrance to the tunnel, and Spyro, Cynder, Ignitus, and I took to the air and flew away. Spyro and I stopped and turned back.

"Be careful, Sparx," Spyro said.

"Hey... it's me. Being careful is all I know," Sparx said, offering a smile.

"Bye, Sparx..." I whispered hoarsely, all I could bring myself to say, before turning and flying away. I never looked back.

~~...~~

This place was hot and looked devoid of life, but I wasn't thinking about that. I just stared at the ground, only looking up when we arrived at the fiery wall.

"I should be able to offer some protection from the heat. Stay close to me," Ignitus said in a hushed voice. I drew closer. I did _not _want to go into that thing, but it was the only way.

A shield-like orb emanated from Ignitus, surrounding us, and we walked into the fire. Being inside there gave me an uneasy feeling, like I was trapped in a small area. If that orb disappeared, even a little bit... And Ignitus was walking slowly. This obviously was taking a lot out of him. I glanced at him worriedly.

The orb flickered. I drew my breath in and yanked my tail closer to my body as it singed and bit my tongue to stop from complaining. I feared that this wouldn't end well.

"Ignitus, let's turn back! There's got to be another way!" Spyro exclaimed, noticing this.

"Spyro, Crystal... Cynder... I've never done right by either of you... Allow me to do this..." Ignitus said.

"What? !" I looked up sharply. What did that mean? What could he possible mean?

"What are you saying? !" Spyro's voice had the same sharp, worried tone.

"My path ends here... but yours lies beyond this... Draw strength from each other, and follow your heart. It will never fail you," Ignitus said, his voice strong, but somehow growing quieter.

"Now go... go... go!" I don't know what happened, but I was suddenly flung through the air with Spyro and Cynder in the orb.

"Ignitus! Don't!" I cried, but it was too late.

I hit a rock roughly, shortly blacking me out, but a few seconds later I was on my feet, along with Spyro.

It didn't register for a moment. I was too shocked. It just didn't go through, or maybe I didn't want it to, because I knew it couldn't be true, but it _was..._

He was gone.

"Ignitus... Nooo!" The cry escaped both of our throats at the same time.

I was suddenly stricken with grief, followed by horror. I should have died in there... I _should _die in there! I had to go back! Maybe I could still save him!  
"Spyro, Crystal, stop! It's too late!You can't do anything for him now!" Cynder yelled to us, but I ignored her.

"No... he isn't gone..." Spyro said, his voice breaking. He glared at Cynder, but I stared at the flames. She was _wrong. _She had to be wrong.

"Spyro... let it go..." Her attention was focused on Spyro now. He was angry, but I was just too shocked to be angry. I could feel my emotions and... everything begin to overwhelm me.

I felt it immediately. I was terrified and sad and horrified and it was too much for me, too much for Spyro as well. We just lost control.

"No!" It was Spyro's voice, distorted.

"No, Spyro, Crystal, don't!" I rose off the ground. My scales had turned black and my eyes glowed white. The necklace that held us together crackled and snapped with more force than usual. I didn't want it to happen, and I tried to fight it, but whatever I had untapped in the Well of Souls got hold of me again.

I was angry now, angry at Cynder for letting this happen, at Spyro for not even trying to stop this, but most of all, angry at myself, merely for existed. Maybe if I hadn't existed, Ignitus would still be alive. He wouldn't have had to use so much power...

I was worthless.

"You can't stop me," Spyro said. Rocks from the ground swirled around us, attracted to us. It would be so easy to aim for her...

"You're right. Only you can do that. Please, don't do this," Cynder pleaded.

Spyro's anger began to null, mine along with it. I couldn't kill her, I realized, she didn't deserve it, and I couldn't kill myself... even if _I _deserved it.

The black aura surrounding us faded slowly, and we dropped down onto the ground.

The emotion I felt then... guilt. I wasn't angry or frightened anymore, but I was still sad... but, I also accepted the death. I didn't agree with it, I hated it, but I accepted it. It was over.

Cynder approached us. "We have to go on. He wanted us to."

She was right, but I just wished I could jump back into the flames... it would be so easy. No more Malefor, no more death, no more pain. But we needed to finish it. Even if all hope was lost, we could still kill the one who started this. I wanted revenge, and even though I knew it was wrong, wrong, wrong to let that horrible want consume me, I would not rest until Malefor had payed.

"It wasn't supposed to be like this..." Spyro said. His voice was still broken. "I feel so alone..."

"You're not alone." Cynder approached him and hugged him.

"Hey, don't worry, Spyro. Everything's going to be fine," I offered, giving a sad smile. I was lying on the last part, but I was sure that even if we couldn't stop the end of the world, we could at least stop Malefor. That would be enough for me. Either way, I needed to at least try to cheer up Spyro a little bit. I didn't want to see him grief-stricken in our last hours.

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**A/N:**

**I don't wanna write anymore. Today, I mean. Well, hope you like this sad chapter. :(**


	18. Lighter

**A/N:**

***crying* I just heard... the most poetic... beautiful... heart-breaking thing ever. Sunny, you are AMAZING. *sob* I just have to use it. The 'broken' paragraph belongs to Son of the Sea... nn, insert random numbers here. I don't own Spyro, just Crystal. And if you don't like the story... *blows nose* then go cry, I'll give you a snotty hankie.**

**The cliff scene at the end, in part, belongs to GoldenGriffiness. She drew a picture of Crystal glancing back at Spyro and Cynder, with the volcano in the distance, and when I looked at it again it just snapped into my mind. I think it was supposed to take place at the dam, but you know.**

* * *

This place, these burned lands, did not help my melancholy mood. There wasn't a patch of grass to be seen. Any trees in the area were nothing but charred wood. What used to be a rocky stream now held lava. What must have once been a beautiful landscape was dead, just like everything else in my life.

Spyro was not taking it well. His grief showed plain on his face. I felt just as bad, but I simply plodded along, stone-faced and silent. I might have said something comforting, but what could I say? There was nothing I could do now. Action alone would be my relief. Malefor was going to die. I wouldn't, I _couldn't_ settle for anything less than that.

And that's not to say I didn't just want it to all end. I knew how easy it would be to throw myself into the lava, to lie down and wait for the end, or anything just to make it stop. But I couldn't do that. I had come to far, and anyway, Cynder was right. That's not what Ignitus would have wanted.

I couldn't feel anything anymore, as I walked through the blackened passage that led to the volcano. There was nothing less. I was... I didn't know... I just felt...

Broken.

Yes, broken. Like something had gone horribly wrong, and it was my fault, like nothing in the world would ever be right again, like my entire world was falling around me. A nine-year-old in a twelve-year-old's body, who's lost so much, seen far too much, and to lose a parent-like figure, and then to know you're going to die soon, too...

And with so many emotions in turmoil, I just broke inside, snapped, everything crumbled...

I could go on forever about this and it wouldn't be nearly enough...

Often there are too many things to say... and not enough words to say them.

That's just how I felt. And how Spyro felt. That was all there was to say. That's just the way it was.

I knew I had to be strong, but it was hard. As we emerged on the other side of the passageway, onto a large 'field' filled with geysers that spurted hot lava and gas, I felt like crying. But I didn't. I just kept going, because that's what I had to do.

I had a chance to take out my emotions on some gremlins that confronted us. There was nothing left but ash when I was done with them, and Spyro and Cynder stayed out of my way.

As we were walking to the middle of the barren field, stone walls suddenly shot up behind us and in front of us, and many grublins, along with on of the strong leaders, popped out of the ground.

There were too many. We couldn't run, there was a forcefield around the walls, like the ones the apes used to conjure up to stop us from running. They were overwhelming us, and there were no Spirit Gems in sight.

I thought that maybe it was finally over. Maybe I wouldn't have to deal with it anymore. But I was frantic, and I had to resort to it. I had no choice.

A blast of Convexity escaped my mouth, immediately killing the gremlins in front of me. I turned to the leader and let out another beam of the purple light, which also killed a few gremlins and shattered one of the walls. Since the leader was dead, the forcefield disappeared as well. I glared at the few remaining gremlins. They sank back into the ground in a hurry.

I felt guilty immediately. I had told myself that I wouldn't use that element again... Yes, using it had freed Cynder and I don't regret that, but the last time I used it, I murdered Gaul—he had surrendered, the coward—and almost killed Cynder and Sparx. I was possessed, and when I was finally freed I didn't want anything to do with the element.

And yet here I used it. But I couldn't have done anything else. We would have died had I not. I ignored Spyro and Cynder's glances. I didn't care what they thought. Not anymore.

_You're not yourself. _The familiar voice entered my head. I glanced at Spyro.

_Gee, really? I didn't notice, _I spat back hatefully.

_You don't need to do this to yourself, Crystal. _

_Maybe I want to._

_You don't want to._

He was right, I knew. But I didn't feel like talking, so I just blocked him out and ignored him.

A few more gremlins popped out of the ground, and I let Spyro and Cynder kill them, only throwing a fireball into the mix. We continued on.

"He's up there somewhere, isn't he?" Cynder asked, glancing up at the volcano. "I don't know if I can go through with this." She shook her head.

_That _surprised me. Cynder, always-unafraid Cynder, was frightened to confront Malefor. This was yet another sad revelation to me. Death frightens even the most strong. I sighed. Was I afraid to die? No. I sure didn't _want _to die, but I didn't fear it. There was nothing else that could be done, so I wasn't afraid of death.

What did scare me was the thought that we might die before I could avenge Ignitus' death.

"I don't know either. But we have to. You said it yourself. If we don't, then everything we've fought for..." Spyro paused. "Everything we've lost... it's all been for nothing."

"Alright then. I'll go. But only because I want to get rid of this chain," Cynder said rather quickly.

"To what use? I agree with Spyro, but what are we fighting for? It's all ash or will be ash soon," I said, motioning towards the volcano. "Or it's already been ash for a long time," I added bitterly. Not waiting for their replies, I took to the air, and they were forced to follow me.

The journey was uneventful except for the occasional gremlin attack. I wished for the sound of birds or the wind waving through trees or anything... anything that could relieve me from my fear and sorrow. But there was nothing. I felt hopeless.

As we were walking on a high platform, the rock walls shot up around us... very close to each other. Then, _something _popped out of the ground. These weren't gremlins... the two things looked similar to the troll that attacked Warfang. These were made of vines and rock and... obsidian? The grass on them was brown and dead.

With such a tight space, beating them was not easy. We were continually being caught in the backwash of another's element; once Cynder accidentally hit me with poison. It was only a small spurt and most of it landed on the monsters themselves, but a little bit of it hit my arm and sizzled, burning into it. Even that escalated into a sharp pain.

Finally, the trolls died. We had been practically killing each other in there, so we had to stop and absorb some life Spirit Gems.

I sighed and plodded over to a small ledge jutting out from the end of the rock. The volcano was right in front of us, along with Malefor's lair. We just had to fly to it and...

Spyro and Cynder both waited patiently, but I wasn't ready to move on. I glanced reluctantly back at Spyro, and he met my gaze. He was worried about me too, I knew, but I pushed him away whenever he tried to offer comfort.

I sighed and gazed up at the sky. It was reddish orange, a shade similar to Ignitus' color. I didn't know what I was waiting for, but I prayed for it, hoped...

A flash of thunder echoed through the sky, and rain began to sprinkle down from it. I closed my eyes for a moment, then turned back to Spyro and Cynder. They were both gazing at me.

I smiled slightly, a sad smile, but a smile nonetheless. Somehow, the rain had cast away all the emotions; the fear, the grief, the pain. I felt lighter, not happy, but not thrown into a dark pit of despair either. I turned and took to the air.

There was still hope.

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**A/N:**

**I hope you enjoyed this somewhat bittersweet chapter. I might write a special oneshot later, or I might not if it's stupid, so I bid you good... er, six o'clock.**


	19. The Floating Islands

**A/N:**

**Remember... all the pictures you sent me. It was the second one. And I have no idea what to say here. Ow, my head. Enjoy the chapter. I don't own Spyro, just Crystal, and if you don't like it I'll give you a headache. OW.**

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"It's beautiful up here." I glanced at Cynder oddly, then looked up.

Wow, just... wow. It _was _beautiful. In an eerie way, it was. The sky was even redder here, but the red was a nice shade, and at the pinnacle of the island was a fortress, most likely Malefor's. The clouds swirled around it ominously. There was grass growing on the islands as well as various flora and fauna. There also seemed to be some sort of ruined architecture here, like from Warfang. The view was fantastic—the way the red sky blended with the blue in the distance and the gilded clouds even farther off made a spectacular contrast. This place seemed to be almost overrun with Spirit Gems. They sparkled brightly against the dark sky.

"The tower... it must lead to Malefor's lair..." Spyro said as we landed in front of large doors that led to a tower, obviously ignoring Cynder.

"Thank for ruining the moment," Cynder said sarcastically.

"Yeah. We're about to go up _there _where the sky is SWIRLING around the fortress, to fight the evil master of doom and most likely die in the process. I don't think there's any moments left." I gave a cynical glance to the tower.

I looked around my surroundings. There was no grass on this island, surprise surprise. On either side of the large door was a statue pressed against the wall. Malefor.

"What sort of locking mechanism is this, now?" I wondered, gazing up. There were some sort of holes in the wall above the door, embedded with metal. There seemed to be no indication of how to open it.

I sighed and looked around before taking to the air. Might as well explore this place and see if we could find any way to open the door.  
It didn't take us long to find something of interest; a fire-pot with a small amount of wood in it. I lit it, heard a small explosion from behind me, and turned to see fire coming from one of the holes above the door.

I glanced back at the pot. I had no idea how that worked, but a lock is a lock, so apparently there were more of these things around and we needed to light them.

As we flew around, I figured that Malefor would have his tower heavily guarded, and I was somewhat right. Here and there were gremlins, but not many, and they weren't even the powerful kinds. It's like he wanted us to get to him with next to no fight.

We flew up higher, as Spyro had apparently spotted two torches on one of the islands. We were met with four gremlins, but they had a surprise for us.

I lunged at one of the gremlins, but I was cut short by our collar holding me in place. Unlike the usual elasticity of the collar that would gently pull me back whenever I went too far, this time it snapped me backwards, sending me reeling. I turned around and saw some sort of device on the ground, similar to the one that held all of us in place when we first woke up.

I breathed fire onto the nearest gremlin then turned my attention to attacking the device holding us in place. When it broke, we finally finished off the gremlins and lit the torches. More flying revealed two more. There were eight holes, I noticed as I glanced back, so only three to go.

As we hunted down more torches, I vaguely thought that this was just too easy. Malefor should be doing all he could to keep us away from him, yet here we were with one more torch and only having killed a handful of gremlins.

Was he really afraid of us? Or was it us who should be afraid of him? We outnumbered him, yes, but he was probably worth hundreds of powerful dragons... he probably knew every element we did, even convexity, even elements not yet discovered or ones I did not know about. He was more powerful than us, older, more deceptive... We were more powerful in number alone.

There didn't seem to be any chance we would survive, or be able to stop the end before it happened, _if _we lived through the battle, but we had to try.

The last torch was on an island far away from the rest. It only had a single gremlin, which was dispatched quickly with Cynder's fear. Let's just say it'd rather take its chances with the air rather than with us.

The door opened as we flew over to it, now that it was unlocked. I glanced inside. Seemed safe enough. I walked through the doors, looking around. It was simply a small room with another door at the other end.

I looked back quickly as the door slammed shut behind us. It seemed like an ambush, but no gremlins popped out of the ground... yet.

I glanced around uneasily at the small statues of Malefor that lined the walls. I blew a bit of fire onto my paw and held it there with magic, making a feeble light. The need to do this made me miss Sparx even more, as his usual glowing illuminated most dark rooms.

We noticed a lever over beside the door. Spyro walked up to it and pulled it down, and we proceeded outside as the door slid open.

I was quickly knocked back by a giant boulder landing in front of me. I flipped to my feet and dodged to the side when another hit the ground.

Of course. A troll was standing on the upper parts of a wood pathway set into the wall. It threw another boulder down and gremlins broke out of it. I sighed and fought them, sniping them with icicles and dodging more boulders.

We were on some sort of a plaza now. There were still more and more of those creepy statues... but that was all that was interesting here.

The troll jumped down from the wall bridge and landed on the ground in front of us with a loud roar.

I dodged a punch and wound my way behind him, giving him a fiery blow. I stepped out of the way as Cynder pushed the troll over with wind and sent him stumbling towards the edge. Unfortunately, it caught its balance and leaped for us. He missed, but he delivered a blow the cracked the floor tile and delivered a shockwave that knocked us over.

I ran for the edge when the troll chased me, but hopped into the air and flew around when I reached it. The troll caught its balance again, but I dived towards it and knocked it over, sending it plummeting to the ground far below.

I flew into the air and around the plaza towards the island above us... where Malefor was waiting. As we flew towards it, a wind tunnel, oddly placed, carried us even more quickly towards the lair.

We came closer and closer to the fortress all the while, but I wasn't looking at it. I was looking back. Would this be the last time I would look off into the distance? The last time I would smell the scent of grass and flowers? Or share a laugh with someone? I couldn't remember the last time I had laughed.

I sighed and took a breath, turning my gaze to the tower. I didn't have much time left, I knew, but I had spent what time had been given to me wisely... I hoped. It didn't matter. This was reality, and as we approached the large wooden doors with intricate carvings on it, I knew that whatever happened, we needed to finish this. I hadn't been breathing, I realized. I had been holding my breath. I exhaled and looked around. It was time.

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**A/N:**

**Short, but tomorrow's will be longer. I can't believe this is nearly over. Well, R&R. Is that 'Read and Review' or 'Rate and Review'? I mean, you can't rate stories, and you've obviously already read it. I hereby unofficially denounce it 'F&R' which is 'Fave and Review'! But of course, if you've gotten this far, you must have faved it already. Well, then what's the point of...?**

**You know what? Never mind.**


	20. The Final Battle

**A/N:**

**Oh, why, why must it end so early? ! A year... very early... but whatever. XD Enjoy this looong chapter. I don't own Spyro, I never did, and I never will. If I did, I would fire whoever came up with Skylanders. So enjoy.**

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The statues loomed over us, glaring as if to say, _"__How dare you disturb me!"_ There they were, the doors to Malefor's lair, and the end of everything I had once known.

"Are you ready for this?" The question was directed at Cynder, but still, in my head, I said no. No, I was not ready.

"I'm scared..." Cynder admitted.

I didn't blame her, honestly. None of us were ready to look death in the eyes and fight back. I was too young, not powerful enough. What was Ignitus thinking when he entrusted this to us? How could we possibly defeat Malefor? How could Ignitus ever believe in us?

"Just stay close to me." Spyro turned his gaze to me.

"You ready?" he asked.

I sighed. "Let's finish this." I nodded and walked forward, sticking behind Spyro.

The doors opened like magic as we approached, as if they were attached to strings. The room was bare except for a few torches, and the large entity in the middle of it. He was masked with shadow, so I could not make out his features, except for a pair of glowing yellow eyes... almost snake or cat-like.

"At long last my guests have arrived. Please... come in." He sounded almost _courteous, _but his voice was deep and distorted. I froze and gave a sharp glance at Spyro and Cynder, but relaxed quickly and walked forward.

I could feel the evil aura in this room, radiating off him. It chilled me to the bone.

"Such determination to get here..." Malefor stepped out of the light, revealing himself.

He was larger than us, so large that we were like ants beside him. His coloring was similar to ours, but his colors were much darker. He had five horns, one curving backwards over his head and two sticking out of the sides and twisting back as well. There were two smaller ones in between his large horns. He was scarred and twisted, and looked like something out of a nightmare. He was smiling, but the smile was far from warm. It was a cruel, evil smile, and when he met my glare, I could feel myself draining. How were we going to fight this? I didn't let myself appear frightened or startled, though, just continued to glare at him.

"...It seems we share other qualities besides that of our color."

"No! I'm nothing like you!" Spyro exclaimed.

"Do you think so? Hmm..." He chuckled maliciously. "We'll get to that." He paced around us, close enough so that I could have touched him, but he did not attack us yet.

I knew he was going to play with our minds first. I considered attacking him now and having the element of surprise, but I cast it off. One attack from me would barely do any damage. I could communicate my idea to Spyro, but I had no idea how to tell Cynder what I was planning, and only all three of us attacking him at the same time would do any damage. Let him talk, I thought. We'll get to fighting him eventually.

"Don't listen to him, Spyro. Don't listen to anything he says," Cynder whispered. I just barely caught it. Spyro only glanced down once to register the fact he had heard her.

"You look so weary... allow me to make you more comfortable," Malefor said, almost as if he were talking to a young hatchling, but with a mocking tone in it. Our collars flashed into view for a moment before fading away. I felt the chain between us disappear immediately. I glanced at Cynder then around the room.

Spyro had his eyes trained on Malefor, watching him carefully for any sudden movements. I felt suspicious, too... he was being too kind, too hospitable. Like we were some sort of long-awaited friend. I knew he was teasing us, mocking us, but this was just strange. Why didn't he attack us? I glanced around the room again. It was too empty for my liking. But there was no way gremlins or any creature could be hiding, no indication of traps. I felt uneasy.

"There. That's better, isn't it? It's the least I could do for you, Cynder. After all... you've done so much for me." Malefor laughed. I noticed Cynder back away, out of my vision.

"You used her!" Spyro exclaimed.

"I used her. She used you. What does it matter, really?" Malefor sounded bored.

"What does he mean?" Spyro asked Cynder.

"What? He doesn't know? Go on, tell them... you mustn't leave them in the dark..."

"Tell me what?" Spyro asked. I glanced at Cynder. She looked guilty.

"How she lured you to the Well of Souls... How she tricked you into freeing me..."

"You're lying!" Cynder snapped. The response was too fast, too sudden. I felt suddenly suspicious of Cynder herself... No! I knew I must remember what she said; he's just playing with our minds.

"Hmm... I find it peculiar... how you've chosen to remember things. Let me assure you, it was you who freed me, Spyro and Crystal, and you who brought me back!" The last comment was directed at Cynder. "And we have Cynder to thank for that..." Malefor laughed again, an evil laugh.

Could it be true? No, it couldn't be... Cynder wouldn't do that! She wouldn't do that to us.

"Cynder? Is it true?" Spyro asked, his voice hurt.

"No... I don't know... I don't know anymore..." Cynder replied. She looked away.

"No! Snap out of it, Spyro! He's lying to us!" I finally spoke up. I couldn't hold my peace anymore, not with what Malefor was saying now.

How could Spyro lose faith in Cynder, after all we'd been through together? We went through a burning pirate ship, over the ocean, through our dreams, through the Chronicler's... building thing, BACK over the ocean, and through Malefor's old fortress, just to get to her. And then we pretty much entrapped ourselves in a crystal, for her.

Yes, it was so we could live to fight another day, which we were doing, but it was still in part for her. And now we had just gone on a long adventure, through a city and a valley and places burned and charred beyond recognition, and not once had she done anything that would make any of us question her judgment. And now, he's questioning her motives because somebody completely evil who was trying to mess with out heads said she had tricked us. What Malefor was saying couldn't be true.

"Oh, I think you do..." Malefor said to Cynder. "But perhaps you need a little nudge..."

"Cynder!" Spyro and I exclaimed at the same time, backing up, as Cynder was drawn into the air and a black aura began to surround her...

"Cynder! No!" Spyro yelled, as Cynder dropped onto the ground, her eyes glowing white, and began to stalk towards him.

I panicked. I shouldn't have done what I did then, but I was panicking and frightened. With a yell, I ran for Malefor, shooting fireballs wildly that hit their mark. It didn't seem to affect him at all, for he kicked me, sending me flying against the wall. I hit it hard.

My vision began to black, but I was still conscious. I couldn't move, for my body was paralyzed, but I could just barely sense the world around me. I heard Spyro call my name and saw out of the corner of my eye him shielding himself from Cynder's attacks, as well as Malefor laughing wickedly.

"Ignitus should have warned you... you are alone here, young dragons, you have always been alone..." I groaned and tried to sit up, but fell back to the floor, my head pounding.

"Still, here you are, trying so desperately to save this miserable world... refusing to accept the true role of the purple dragon..." His words were ominous and they bored a hole in me.

Spyro just barely dodged another of Cynder's attacks, but was thrown against the wall.

"I'm sure that you have been told that I was the first of our kind, but I assure you, there have been many. It has been the duty of our predecessors to resurrect the Destroyer and the Golems of the deep, to bring about the great Cleansing. This is the true nature of our kind. Your destiny is to destroy the world." A small cry escaped my throat. What was Malefor talking about? He must have been lying again...

"No! I don't believe that!" Spyro yelled, clenching his fist and banging on the floor, standing up from where he had been knocked over. I still felt dizzy from the blow I had received, so I stayed where I was. I needed to help Spyro, but what good would I be? Why wouldn't he fight Cynder? He was backing away and blocking her with his wings, but he made no move to retaliate.

"Of course you don't. But you have fulfilled your destiny nonetheless. In my time, I was stopped, prevented from completing my quest. But you... you have carried the flame... be it through your own will or not! And soon, the world will be destroyed, you along with it!" Malefor cackled.

"No..." Spyro said weakly.

I suddenly felt a burst of energy, and I jumped to my feet. I couldn't help Spyro, but I might be able to keep Malefor busy.

"You know what you are? !" I cried, turning his attention away from Spyro. "You're a coward!" I bounded closer to him, glaring him down. "You've always sent others to do your will, instead of doing it yourself, even when you had your ability to do so. You start all of this, train an army twice, but instead of going out there to fight, you sit here cowering in your tower. You know what I think? I think you're weak!"

I saw the blow coming this time and I dodged out of the way. Retaliating, I sent an electric bolt in his direction, and out small battle began. I kept it away from Spyro's direction, dodging Malefor's attacks. He had far more elements than I did, it was apparent, but somehow I managed to avoid danger and get in a few blows myself.

"Fight back!" Cynder yelled from the other side of the room, attacking Spyro, her voice distorted. I didn't notice her, though, I was too busy trying not to suffocate under Malefor's shadow breath. "Fight back! Why won't you fight back? !"

"Because you've left me nothing to fight for..." Spyro said sadly.

Something about his words or the tone he said it in must have snapped something in her, for the darkness dissipated and she was returned to normal. "There's always something."

I was drawn to alertness when Malefor's attacks ceased. Despite my efforts, he had caught on to Cynder being freed.

"So be it! You've made your choice and you shall suffer the same fate!" Malefor growled. The collars reappeared on us and crackled with energy. I ran over to Spyro and Cynder, skidding to a stop beside them, prepared for whatever Malefor had to throw at us.

"Prepare to die!" Suddenly, Malefor shot into the air and smashed through the roof. We were right after him, into the air and over the Floating Islands.

He was faster than us, and I suddenly feared for a moment that he would run, but no, he was waiting for us. He was going to fight.  
"You with me?" Spyro asked us.

"I'm with you," Cynder and I responded at the same time.

Malefor shot a fireball at us that grazed Cynder, but we were gone, flying towards him, rapidly attacking him. In retaliation, he swung at us, but fortunately missed. After a few more blows I backed off, wondering if it would be worse to be close to him or far away from him.

I swung up into the air, dodging small blasts of convexity, but Cynder once again wasn't so lucky, as one small piece of Convexity hit her full force just as she had breathed acidic poison on Malefor. Amazingly, it didn't even penetrate him, and even more amazingly Cynder recovered from the convexity blast immediately. But most amazingly at all, she attacked him with her _own _blast of convexity.

Now, this was surprising. I suppose Malefor might have given her the power of convexity to use in dire situations, but she never mentioned it. I guess she wanted to stay away from _that _topic.

As we were fighting Malefor, his words ran through my head and made me dizzy once again. Was he lying about Cynder? About other purple dragons?

And then the thought that I just couldn't keep away wormed its way into my head. What made us different from them? Why shouldn't I be like Malefor?

"_Because I know you. And your heart would not allow it. Because I believe you are destined for great things, to bring about a new age... an age of peace... And I do not see what role destruction will have in that age."_

I was filled with strength again. Ignitus was right. Ignitus was _right! _It was like an epiphany, something that just suddenly hit me, yet something that had been there all along.

I was thrown from my thoughts when Spyro and Cynder both scattered. Just barely I got out of the way as Malefor dived towards us.

Again he did it, and this time all three of us sent a beam of Convexity his way, all at the same time. I didn't mean to let it escape, but... I guess this classified as an emergency. I needed Convexity if we were to have any chance to defeat Malefor.

We flew higher and higher into the sky, even as red clouds gathered and lightning flashed through it.

"It has begun!" Malefor cried triumphantly.

_No, _I thought. _He will not win this. _

Spyro and Cynder stared at the Destroyer as it climbed up the volcano and into its depths, but I was readying myself. I focused my thoughts on earth, on replicating what Terrador had done to the Golem. I doubted highly that I would smash right through Malefor, but I would still do damage. I took a breath, surrounded myself with earth, then curled myself into a ball and flung myself at Malefor.

The impact _hurt, _but I hurt Malefor, at the very least. I wearily flew back before he could retaliate, limbs aching.

"Oh, no. We're too late!" Spyro yelled over the volcano as it boomed and spurted lava into the sky.

"We've been too late for a long time, Spyro!" I laughed, almost crazily. "But we can end this! We can end ALL OF IT!" I flew forward rapidly, but a smash from Malefor's paw hit me and I was flung down onto...

The Temple. Or what was left of it. The gigantic spurt from the volcano had broken it into pieces, and it was still rocketing skyward. I stood up quickly, just in time to see Malefor land onto the Temple floor, cracking it even more.

"Welcome to the end of the world!" he yelled.

And then we were falling again. Falling _into _the volcano. I looked up as the sky slowly disappeared. How was this possible? Where was the lava? Had it all been ejected moments before?

Malefor was shooting balls of convexity that worked much like Cynder's balls of fear; they were black rock-like formations surrounded by a red aura. But these, these were purple and homed in on us, making it almost impossible to get away without breaking the rocks.

I dodged a bolt of ice that would have smashed me flat had it impacted. I was suddenly surprised I had made it this far. I clung onto the thought that we could still defeat him.

I didn't have time to think about that as I next dodged a slash of his claws laced with poison. I shocked him again, putting all of my will into that attack. It hurt him, too... it stunned him. Spyro, Cynder, and I took that time to get in a few attacks.

"Watch out!" Spyro yelled to Cynder as, when Malefor snapped out of it, he tried to swipe at Cynder.

They both jumped into the air. A purple glow wrapped around both of them, and the glow smashed down onto Malefor. He screamed and fell onto the ground, but immediately picked himself back up.

And still he was alive. Now I knew he was desperate, though. He was afraid of us. We were going to win!

There was a thick shield around him, made of Convexity and swirling wildly. It protected him and when I tried to jump through it, it pushed me back and sent a shock through my body. We were forced to resort to our elements to fight the shield while dodging Malefor's blows. After a few minutes, the shield collapsed and Malefor fell, weakened greatly.

And still he stood again.

I could feel myself beginning to grow weak... Malefor had not hit me often, but he was so powerful that when he did, it left a large gash or a mark. Not to mention my elemental strength was weakening with the prolonged use... Could we still defeat him? Or would Malefor triumph over his victory as he stood over out limp bodies? I couldn't think like that now... We needed to at least try. Being pessimistic would not help the cause.

Cynder concentrated then shot a beam of convexity at Malefor that held him in place and blinded him. Spyro and I exchanged quick glances, then we leaped into the air and threw ourselves at Malefor. His yell was the last thing I heard before everything went white...

I felt myself falling and shook my head. We were falling deeper into the volcano. I suddenly realized that we had been falling now for a good ten minutes, maybe more. How deep was this volcano? Would we land at the bottom and be crushed? Not even Malefor could survive a fall like that. I couldn't move my wings, so there was no chance of flying back up.

I felt his presence before Spyro and Cynder did. I dodged out of the way when Malefor flew up below us like a shark hunting its prey, grabbed Spyro and Cynder, and slammed them into the wall.

I heard their plaintive cries of pain as they were dragged down the hot, rocky wall. I flew, or more like floated up behind Malefor and clawed at him, but he wouldn't let go, even when I managed to rip a deep gash in his neck.

I saw Spyro pushing away from the wall and I flew out of the way just in time to see Malefor get thrown onto the other side of the volcano. And _still _he didn't die! This astounded me. How, how, after all this, could he be alive? !

We moved quickly. Malefor was vulnerable. Surrounding ourselves with convexity, we dived for Malefor. I heard him and Spyro yell. I could see it now, him slamming onto the floor of this chamber we were approaching... surely he couldn't survive that... But somehow he managed to get away from us and threw us. This slowed our fall, fortunately, and we managed to spread our wings and land unharmed.

The chamber was large, and in an island in the exact middle the floor was made out of some odd, purple crystal, maybe diamond, as it looked quite impenetrable. The rest of the chamber was empty, and the bottom was even farther down.

"You cannot defeat me! I am eternal!" Malefor yelled, before shooting a blast of Convexity at us. We breathed a blast back, and the four blasts met in the middle, pushing against each other, fighting...

"Just... hang... on!" Spyro somehow managed to speak as we flew closer to Malefor. I felt strained and weakened, and just as I thought I would give out...

Malefor screamed as our blasts of Convexity overpowered his. He was hit full force with our beams and was knocked out of the air. I landed on the ground, on his back. Surely...

But, no. He flipped himself over and stood up. I felt hopeless then. The attack had drained me of everything I had left, and still he was not dead. I would not even get to avenge Ignitus and all those who had fought in the war and lost their lives.

I landed on the ground. I didn't care if I was out of energy—I would _not _just give up. I would fight until the end. It was the least I could do.

But then, something happened. Something amazing. I thought I might have been dreaming or I might have died and was just living an after-death fantasy, but it was true... There were spirits, five of them, flying out of the crystal and surrounding him.

"The ancestors..." I murmured. Of course they were, they had to be. Who were they, though, exactly?

"What is this? !" Malefor glared up at the spirits, but I recognized something in his eyes... fear. No, terror.

The spirits winged down to him, plummeting down, grabbing him and dragging him into the crystal...

"NOOOO!" But it was too late for Malefor. The last we saw of him was his paw reaching up as if to ask us to help him, but even that was dragged down. I felt the relief again as the necklaces faded away.

It was over. Malefor would forever be confined in the crystalline prison, not able to die, but unable to breathe.

The volcanic underground began to crack and an eerie red light shined through them. The ground rumbled and roared, and I knew it was the end. Despite all we had done, the world was going to end.

"Spyro, Crystal, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry," Cynder said, shaking her head sadly.

"Don't be. It's over now." Spyro's voice sounded comforting, despite what loomed behind his simple words.

"You shouldn't be sorry, Cynder. Don't be sorry for a single thing." I looked up through the passageway.

"So this is it?" Cynder asked, sighing and looking around. Our final resting place was not a hopeful one. Or peaceful. We were going to die within the depths of a volcano, with the world exploding around us...

"If I could do it over..." I began. Spyro looked at me sadly. I sighed. "I would have done everything the same." I lowered my head sadly.

One thought lingered in my mind. I had failed them. Mom, Dad, Sparx, Ignitus, I had failed them all. I hoped that at least Mom, Dad, and Sparx would survive. I knew Sparx was underground... perhaps he would live through this.

A familiar voice shot my out of my sad thoughts immediately. I whirled around to see Ignitus' spirit, looked at Spyro to see if he saw it as well, which he did, and stared up at Ignitus. Shock was apparent on my face.

"Spyro, Crystal, when a dragon dies, he does not truly leave this world. His spirit lives on, binding itself with nature, offering hope for the future..." And then he was gone as quickly as he came.

The idea came to Spyro and I almost instantly. I realized that there was one way to stop this... It would require our lives, but the world would be saved along with everyone in it.

"I know what we need to do. ...Just get out of here, Cynder," Spyro said.

"Spyro, no. You don't have to do anything. Let's just go," Cynder insisted.

"Where, Cynder? There'll be nothing left. The world is breaking apart. But I think we can stop it. I think we're meant to," Spyro explained quickly.

He was right. Cynder needed to get out of here. This would probably kill her, what we were about to do. I moved to the far side of the crystal, away from Spyro and Cynder, and gazed down below. I wasn't sure what I was looking for. Perhaps lost memories.

I remembered the Swamp. I could close my eyes and see it again, see Mom and Dad waiting for us, because they knew we were coming home. I heard Sparx's laughter in the background. I clung to that memory, even though I knew we weren't going home.

"Then I'm with you..." Cynder said bringing me back to reality. I wanted to protest, but there was no time. I was thankful she had stayed, actually. It was selfish, I knew, but I just wanted her to be here for some reason.

I gave her one last meaningful look that said, _"Thank you." _I glanced at Spyro and gave a reassuring smile, a real smile. Finally, I took my last breath and lifted into the air along with Spyro, contained all the energy I ever had and ever would have, and let it out in an orb that expanded wider and wider, farther away...

I could have sworn I heard Cynder say something, but I was too far away to hear, and I needed to concentrate. The words weren't meant for me, anyway. I felt the power radiate off me. The orb was miles away, then half of the world was consumed in the orb, and then I felt weak...

I thought about everything that sparked an emotion of some sort in me then. I thought of my life, everything that had happened in it, good and bad. I recalled little scraps of happy memories. I tried to remember smiling... smiles had been so rare recently, laughter even more so.

I felt more powerful then... just a little bit longer... and then it would be over and I could let it end. I would rest easy knowing that the world was safe and restored, and everything was going to be okay.

I held the orb for a little longer after it reached the height of its power, and then I knew...

I could let go.

And I did, the power left me, and everything turned a comfortable black. I embraced the darkness as I felt my life draining. I might have laughed, but it was probably just my imagination. I slipped into a calming, peaceful silence.

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**A/N:**

**GOLDEN, WILL YOU PLEASE STOP SCREAMING ****'NOOOOOOOOOOO**OO-OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-000000000000000-000oooooooooooo-ooooooooooooooo-oooooo '**, YOU ARE HURTING MY EARS. Thank you. And before you crazy people freak out or burst into tears or something, ****THERE WILL BE ANOTHER CHAPTER.**** Yes, really, just stay tuned tomorrow and I will post it. Thank you very much, I hope you enjoyed this chapter that is the very last that takes place within the game except for the SPECIAL IGNITUS SCENE and the happy Spyro and Cynder flying scene. **


	21. End of a Legend

**A/N:**

**I do NOT own Spyro. I only own Crystal. If you don't like the story I'll... give you a sister? Named Maggie? Er...? And by the way, before I forgot, it's SonofzeeSea's birthday. Haaaappy birthday! Chapter dedication granted. :'3**

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A slight blue glow was emanating from the large hourglass in the middle of the room, but that was the only source of light. On the walls of the large room, you could just faintly see the outlines of bookshelves, filled with books of all lengths and sizes and colors.

At one end of the room stood an adult bluish colored dragon, although not much could be described about him, as the darkness partially hid his features. Floating before him was a book. One page was blank, and the other depicted a picture of the world as it was cracking and breaking apart.

"Be welcome friend. I have long been expecting you," the dragon said, glancing to his right. "A new age is beginning. With each new age, a worthy dragon is chosen to chronicle the many triumphs and failures of that age. This has been my duty for many millenia. And now, Ignitus, I pass this honor to you." True enough, Ignitus stepped out of the shadows and approached the dragon now revealed to be the Chronicler.

"And... what of Spyro and Crystal? Are they...?" Ignitus asked, trailing off.

"Hmm, that is the question, isn't it?" the Chronicler asked.

"You see, each time a dragon dies, a new page is written in this book." The book that had been before the Chronicler closed and floated back over to a shelf. A new book floated over and opened. "I've done my best, but I can't seem to find any trace of them." With that, the Chronicler began to glow a bright blue light. When the light faded, Ignitus' color was replaced with the bluish hue and he was wearing the crystal necklace.

"Well, young dragons..." he wondered aloud. "Where might you be?"

~~...~~

I shot up into a sitting position, but I didn't open my eyes. My breathing was loud and heavy. I was gasping for breath. My vision was blurry and I could hear my heart pounding. I closed my eyes and steadied myself, slowing my breathing until it was normal and I calmed down. I felt weak and my head hurt. What...?  
Everything hit me then. Everything that had just happened. The fight, the volcano...

_I killed myself, _I realized.

My eyes snapped open. We weren't in the chamber anymore. I could feel the soft trickle of a breeze. I looked up into the air, streaked with brilliant colors of purple and orange and even a splay of pink. The stars were beginning to come out. Above us as well were the Floating Islands.

I looked around. We were on a hill, but the land was unrecognizable. There was the volcano, but...

It was the Burned Lands! Already they had healed. Grass was sprouting up through the dirt and the lava that had plagued the stream beds was now replaced with a bubbling brook.

I wondered for a moment how we had gotten out, but I shook the thought off and stood up. But... where were Spyro and Cynder?

It didn't take me long to find them; they were laying right behind me, still passed out. I sighed and sat down. They were alive. Somehow, we were alive. This was amazing. Malefor was imprisoned forever, Spyro and I had put all of our life force into that power that restored the world, we somehow gotten out of the volcano, and now here we were, living!

I sighed and went about gathering wood and twigs to make a fire. I couldn't carry both of them together ten feet, much less all the way to Warfang, and I would not feel safe leaving one or both of them to go get help, so I thought I may as well camp out there until they both wake up.

~~...~~

I was staring listlessly into the fire, consumed by my own thoughts, when a terrified scream drew me out of them. I screamed as well and hopped to my feet. Cynder was in a panic.

"Cynder... Cynder, calm down!" I exclaimed.

"Crystal? Where... where's Spyro?" Cynder asked.

"He's right there, just calm down. It's over." Cynder took my advice and sat back down.

"It's over..." she repeated. "Wait, do you mean..." She looked at me in surprise.

"We did it," I whispered. "We're still alive and everything's okay."

We were mostly silent after that, keeping our thoughts to ourselves, but I knew we were both... what was the word? Excited? It didn't seem quite right. Thankful, maybe. Thankful it was just over.

I noticed that Cynder sometimes gazed at Spyro, almost sadly. I didn't think very much about it, as my thoughts were elsewhere. Finally, I grew tired and eventually fell asleep.

~~...~~

I yawned and opened my eyes, sitting up. The morning was a bright one, blue skies with golden clouds swirling about. Cynder was already awake, pacing.

"Why won't he wake up?" she asked me nervously.

"Why are you so worried about him? Since you're _so very concerned_ about him, I'll get him up now." Promptly I walked over to Spyro and stomped on his tail.

Spyro cried out and hopped to his feet. I was suppressing laughter by now. "Crystal, why in the world did you do that? !" he demanded, glaring at me.

"Because you wouldn't get up," I replied, no longer able to contain my laughter.

"Crystal, we don't have time for—" It hit him suddenly, the realization of what had happened. "What happened down there? How did we get out of the volcano?" Spyro asked.

"I don't know. But it's okay. We did it, Spyro, all of us!" I was filled with sudden joy by my statement. Finally, everything would go back to the way it was before! Well, not exactly... this would impact my life forever. But, still, the days would be peaceful and happy again.

"Woo-hoooo!" I shrieked, taking to the air, reveling happily in the fact that I wasn't pulled back by the chain anymore.

Spyro and Cynder exchanged soft smiles and flew after me, catching up quickly.

"Where are we going?" Spyro asked, laughing. I wasn't even flying towards Warfang.

"Who cares? !" I laughed and spiraled closed to the ground.

Finally, finally. I had been set free. For three years, although I admit only a small fraction of that time conscious, I carried the weight of this mission, but now it was over and I was _free! _

I hovered in the air for a moment, gazing at the sky. Spyro and Cynder swooped up from the ground and extended their paws towards each other. I interrupted them, speeding over them and calling over my shoulder, "Race you to Warfang!" followed by a laugh.

Spyro smiled at Cynder and turned towards me. "You're on!" Cynder was already gone, though, speeding past him, and Spyro was right behind her.

~~...~~

Cynder won.

"No... fair..." I panted, tired from the energy expense. I landed on Warfang's walls to catch my breath, Spyro flying up behind me. Cynder didn't even look tired!

"Come on, Spyro, let's go find Spa—" I was interrupted by Sparx attempting to tackle Spyro in a hug.

"You're alive!" he exclaimed.

"Glad to see you too, Sparx," Spyro said with a laugh.

Sparx next hugged me. "I can't believe it! You fixed it!" was his next exclamation.

"We just wouldn't settle for anything less," I said, grinning.

"I knew you three would be able to do it!" Sparx exclaimed. He flew over to Cynder.

"Cynder... thank you," he said.

"You're welcome, Sparx... but for what?" Cynder asked quizzically.

"You kept your promise." Sparx was actually being sincere. This was surprising, as Sparx had done nothing but taunt and insult Cynder since he had met her, but now... they were almost friends.

"Well, since we've found Sparx, or more like he found us, let's go find the Guardians," I said, standing up and flying below.

The city's population was low at the time, unsurprisingly, and the few dragons or moles that were scattered about were scarce and too busy trying to rebuild the buildings that had been damaged to pay us any mind. There was no sign of Chief Prowlus, Hunter, or any other cheetahs. It took some wandering to find the Guardians, but eventually we did. They were together and walking along the streets.

"We did it. Malefor's dead," Spyro said. They turned, obviously surprised to see us.

"When the night passed we believed you weren't coming back, yet here you are!" Cyril exclaimed.

"Glad you had faith in us," I said, rolling my eyes but grinning good-naturedly.

"This is stupendous! Why, this is exhilarating! You've defeated Malefor against all the odds!" Volteer exclaimed.

Terrador was about to say something, but he glanced around quickly. "Where's Ignitus? Has he returned yet?" he asked.

"Yeah, where's the big guy gone?" Sparx asked, flying around us.

Spyro, Cynder, and I looked away. Pain flashed across my face. The Guardians' features saddened.

"We understand," Terrador said. The others, even Sparx, remained silent.

I continued to gaze at the ground sadly. Everything would have been perfect, if only Ignitus had survived.

"Anyway..." Spyro said quickly, changing the subject, "I think we're going to go back home. To the Swamp, I mean."

I was confused as to what to do next, really. In my early life, there was nowhere else other than the Swamp. Then, when I had discovered my powers, my suspicions were confirmed... I knew I had to find my homeland. But now that it was over, I didn't know what to do. I had found my home, but now I wanted to go back to my true home. I just felt so lost. It was less confusing when I had no other choice but to stay or go. But, of course, I had to go home. So... there really wasn't a choice. Not that I would choose differently, of course. I _belonged _in the Swamp.

"I guess I'll stay here, in Warfang," Cynder said. Spyro and I looked at her suddenly. But... it seemed impossible, life without Cynder. Once she had come, she had imprinted herself into our destinies. And now we would barely ever see her, if ever again...?

"You may come with us, if you wish, back to the swamp," Terrador said.

"Why are you going back there?" I asked, confused.

"The Temple is being rebuilt, along with the town just outside it," he replied.

"Town? There was a town before?" Spyro asked.

"Yes, when Malefor's forces invaded, the inhabitants fled and the town was burned. But now, we and a group of civilians that used to live there are heading back to rebuild it to what it once was," Cyril said.

"What was the town's name?" I asked.

"Saifae."

The word was odd, 'Saifae', and kind of pretty the way it was arranged. It must have been a beautiful town before the war.

"When are we leaving?" Spyro asked.

"Immediately, if you're ready," Terrador replied.

"I'm ready."

"Me, too," I said.

"I guess I'll come along," Cynder said indifferently, but she looked relieved.

"What about you, Sparx?" I asked.

"Sure, let's go," Sparx said quietly. I glanced at him. He seemed unhappy.

I sighed. "Alright, go round up everyone. Let's go," I said to the Guardians.

Spyro, Cynder, Sparx, and I flew off and waited outside the gates for the Guardians to come along with the others. We only waited for about fifteen minutes. Soon they were there and we headed out.

I looked back over my shoulder at the Dragon City one last time. I knew I would come to see it again someday, and I looked forward to that. But for now, I was content with just going home.

The civilians were diverse; dragons of all different elements and colors, a few cheetahs thrown in here and there. One of the cheetahs was, oddly, black, and had a different body structure. They were of all ages. Some walked and some flew. There were a few dragons and cheetahs who looked about my age, but I didn't make any move to talk to them. I didn't really care. I had all the friends I needed.

We traveled for a long time, hours, even. I didn't recognize landscape for much of it... at least not until the ocean came into sight. I remembered then, the unremarkable landscape as we headed for the Well of Souls. I wondered how the cheetahs could have lived there, so close to the mountain. Maybe they had only moved to Avalar after it was destroyed.

When we came to the ocean, all aerial dragons landed. We would have to travel through the Grove, as the cheetahs obviously couldn't walk through the ocean. I was not looking forward to this. I had had quite enough of the Grove before. We trudged into the dark forest-like grove.

"Stick together, and keep your eyes open," I commanded the others.

"For-for what?" a younger dragon with pure white scales asked timidly.

"Oh, nothing much. Mites, Grove Worms, Growths... especially the Growths." I sounded annoyed, and I was. I spoke from experience. Growths were _not _fun. The white dragon looked visually disturbed and shrunk farther into the group.

All in all, though, the journey was somewhat peaceful. We didn't get attacked very often, and the Growths luckily didn't make an appearance, although we had to stop fend off Grove Mites a few times. The poor dragons and cheetahs obviously hadn't ever been exposed to those wretched things before, and I knew quite well they could be very, very painful and irritating.

Finally, the group came out on the other side. It seemed Spyro and I had put pirating to an end in this area, as there were no ships in the water or the air.

I sighed. Now it would only be an hour or two before we were home again. I was excited. I took to the air and fell back, allowing the Guardians to lead again. I could see it in the distance, just over the horizon... home. The sun would set in a few hours, but we had enough time.

The Silver River, by now, had become just that... a river. It spilled into the ocean, but now we were traveling against it. I wondered briefly what would have happened had my egg not landed in the swamp... I might have ended up either dead or all the way to Avalar or Twilight Falls. It didn't matter, though, why ponder on something that never happened?

I felt relief when we entered the cover of the large mushrooms, like a weight had been taken off me. From here, I could probably traverse the place blindfolded. Spyro and I exchanged glances and smiles. I looked at Sparx. He seemed visually happier as well.

I quickened my pace. This was all starting to look familiar, fast. We were nearing the Temple... or what used to be the Temple. It was built on the outskirts of the swamp, I remembered... from the balcony, you could see a forest easily. That was probably where the town used to be.

It didn't take long to arrive at where the Temple had used to be. It was nothing but an overgrown clearing now, but I knew it when we got there.

We continued on, though, until we left the swamp and reached the forest. We traveled through there until we finally reached a vast clearing in the forest.

Here were the sad remains of what had once been. The town had been fairly large and highly populated before... not as large as Warfang, but still.

The largest remains were an almost tower-like structure that was not quite as tall as the ancient trees.

"What building was that?" I asked the Guardians, my voice hushed, nodding to the building.

"That was the school, once before," Terrador replied. "We camp here tonight. Rebuilding starts tomorrow!" he announced to the others.

We helped set up camp quickly, but that was all we could do. We were dying to get back home.

"We'll be back tomorrow," Spyro promised the Guardians and Cynder, and then we were off, Sparx leading the way.

There was the pathway, the long, winding pathway, that led to the clearing where we had lived. We landed on the ground and skidded to a stop. Finally, I knew, we were home.

"Mom, Dad!" Sparx yelled, flying forward first.

"Sparx?" Mom flew out from behind the tree, surprise in her voice. "Sparx!" She flew forward and hugged him tightly.

Spyro and I stepped forward into the light, beaming.

"Spyro! Crystal!" she exclaimed next and we were the 'victims' of her next hugs. "Flash!" she called back, before turning back to us. "I can't believe you're alive..." she said with disbelief.

"Neither can I, Mom," I said, shaking my head.

"What's wr—" Dad began as he flew from behind the tree, but he stopped when he saw us. "You're... you're alive!" More hugs came our way.

"We're so glad to see you guys. After the Destroyer... I mean, when the world was ending, we thought that the fire had reached you before we could fix it..." I tried to explain, but it came out wrong.

"We got word from a falcon to get underground, and quickly, but we didn't know why," Mom said. "What's happened the last three years? We thought that all three of you were..." She didn't finish.

Spyro and I exchanged glances. "It's a long story," we said together.

"We might as well start right after we left..." Spyro said.

So the long story was told, about everything that had happened. We explained our true natures, the past, the people we had met... everything we could remember. Sparx got his word in a few times, and he enjoyed relaying his left-hook punch he delivered to Sniff. Finally, though, the tale was over. Mom and Dad didn't really seem very surprised for the most part.

"But, that's over now. Now there will be peace. The war is over," I said, closing the story.

"You were right, Dad," Spyro said. "All gifts do come with a price."

I glanced at Spyro and up to the stars. "Why put it like that, though? The past is the past. Be thankful for the gift's you've received." I grinned at Spyro, which softened into a smile. He smiled back.

Once again, our family was reunited. We sat together and stared at the stars silently, finally together again.

And so a story ends. A family has been restored, love has been sparked, and peace has reigned over the land. The book has closed on my legend... for now.

* * *

**A/N:**

**And that's it. That's all of it, all of the Legends. Well, except for one. We've had a good run, you know. One year... it doesn't seem like enough, does it? There will be more stories starring Crystal, of course. One of them should be out tomorrow. I just want to thank... everyone. Everyone who's reviewed or PMed or just offered support of any kind. Without it, I might not have made it this far. You're all awesome, you're all important to me. Thank you. For everything.**


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